The BrooklynVegan Show: A Podcast About Music

Minneapolis indie-punk band VIAL join us on the BrooklynVegan podcast in celebration of their excellent new album burnout, out 3/29 via Get Better Records. It’s their third album, and in my opinion their best yet, with everything from punk ragers to brighter indie pop and a lyrical theme that tells the story of a person losing a relationship, with all the anger, sadness, guilt, and apathy (and humor!) that comes with that. Guitarist and co-lead vocalist KT Branscom and drummer Katie Fischer join us on the show to talk about coming up in the Minneapolis DIY scene, blowing up during lockdown thanks to the power of social media, and returning as a full-time touring band once live music started happening again. We also discuss some of the themes and influences behind the new album, the Nirvana song VIAL cover at every show, making a ska version of one of their songs with JER, and much more.   VIAL also appear in the first issue of the new (free!) BrooklynVegan digital magazine: https://redeem.emags.com/brooklyn_vegan_magazine   - 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.  

Ned Russin, leader of Glitterer and co-vocalist of the currently-dormant Title Fight, joins us on the BV show in celebration of Glitterer's great new album Rationale, out this week via ANTI- Records. The conversation veers into topics like DIY ethos vs capitalist realities, art vs commerce and the way art is valued (or undervalued) in general), and other similar ideas that informed the lyricism on Rationale.   --   Theme music by Michael Silverstein   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.

The latest episode of the BrooklynVegan Podcast is an interview with Aaron Carnes, author of the book In Defense of Ska and co-host of the In Defense of Ska podcast. Aaron joins us to celebrate the new updated, expanded 'Ska Now More Than Ever' edition of his book, which you can pre-order now from Clash Books, and the new season of the IDOS podcast, which just launched. Future episodes feature interviews with members of Jawbreaker, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Fishbone, Mr. Bungle, Save Ferris, illuminati hotties, and more. Aaron joins us on the show to talk about a ton of ska-related topics, and he also tells us a lot about what's new in the 'Ska Now More Than Ever' edition of In Defense of Ska. If you like ska--or even if you hate ska--listen now. -- 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.

New York rapper Wiki has not one but two great new albums out this year, 14K Figaro with producer Tony Seltzer and Faith Is A Rock with MIKE and producer The Alchemist, and he joined us on the new episode of the BrooklynVegan Podcast to talk about both of those albums and much more. Wiki has been on a roll with projects that feature a single producer–2022’s Cold Cuts with Subjxct 5, and 2021’s Half God with Navy Blue and Telephonebooth with NAH–and he gets into all of these albums throughout our discussion, while touching on what he likes about doing a full project with one producer and what he’s looking to do next. He also discusses his top current rappers, early influences, underrated New York rap records, his own path to becoming a rapper, and much more. -- Theme music by Michael Silverstein. 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.

Dan Yemin has not one but two bands with new albums out this year: Paint It Black‘s first album in 10 years (and first for Revelation), Famine, as well as the second LP by Open City (which also includes Paint It Black/Ceremony’s Andy Nelson and members of Bridge and Tunnel, Titus Andronicus, and Ted Leo + the Pharmacists), Hands In The Honey Jar. With all this exciting stuff happening in his world, we invited him on the latest episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast. Throughout our hour-long conversation, we talked about longevity in punk and hardcore, bridging the gap between different generations, writing political/protest music in the face of hopelessness, what it means to Dan to be on Revelation Records, and much more from throughout Dan’s rich history, from the early days of Lifetime to Kid Dynamite to the 20+ years he’s spent playing guitar in Paint It Black. -- 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.

It’s been a big year for the ever-changing Midwest rock band Citizen, who celebrated the 10th anniversary of their classic debut album Youth with the biggest shows of their career, and who are marching right along and about to release their new album Calling The Dogs this Friday (10/6) via Run For Cover. Ahead of the album’s release, vocalist Mat Kerekes and guitarist Nick Hamm joined us on the BrooklynVegan podcast.   Pick up our exclusive blue/red swirl vinyl variant of the new Citizen album in the BV shop, at shop.brooklynvegan.com/collections/citizen.   --   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.

This episode of The BrooklynVegan Show is an interview with Angel Du$t and Trapped Under Ice vocalist Justice Tripp. We talk a lot about both of his bands, with a big focus on Angel Du$t's great new album Brand New Soul, and we also touch on everything from the influence of Prince on Angel Du$t to Justice's favorite David Bowie album to Sublime haters to Justice learning to love Godsmack to gatekeeping in hardcore and much 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

Norman Brannon of Texas Is The Reason, New End Original, Shelter, and more (and currently touring guitarist for Thursday) recently relanched his legendary '90s hardcore fanzine Anti-Matter as a Substack, and we invited him on the BrooklynVegan podcast to talk more about the relaunch, and why it made sense to bring it back today. The conversation took all kinds of interesting twists and turns, and I think if you're into any type of hardcore then and/or now, it's very worth listening to what Norman had to say.   -- 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 Florida emo/math rock band Pool Kids. We caught up with the band in the midst of their headlining tour in continued support of their breakthrough 2022 self-titled sophomore LP, which just celebrated its one-year anniversary this month, and also surrounding the release of their new split EP with their hardcore alter-egos POOL. We called them up while they were in the van and running late to their San Francisco show, so we had to weather a few minor technical difficulties caused by cell phone service, but we ended up having a great chat during which the band reflected on their breakout year, discussed the new EP, dove into their 2017 formation and backstory, and much more.   -- The BrooklynVegan podcast 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, including Spotify, Apple Music, and more. DistroKid allows you to do automatic revenue splits, so collaborators and co-writers can get paid too, it provides you with an artist page that links to your music on all streaming services, it allows you to add lyrics, credits, and liner notes, and more. 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 guest on the BrooklynVegan podcast is writer and author Chris Payne in celebration of his new book Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion, 1999-2008, out now on Dey Street Books. We talked about how growing up in NJ during the 2000s emo boom and pursuing a career in music journalism, including a seven-year stint as a staff writer at Billboard, pushed Chris towards writing this book, and we also dove into some key moments of his book and just chatted a lot about 2000s emo. If you're into emo at all, I highly recommend reading Chris' book, which ranges from in-depth reflections on crucial underground moments like the last Silent Majority show before their breakup to a detailed look at the height of the Fall Out Boy / My Chemical Romance craze. Pick up the book here.   -- 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. Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

The latest guest on the BrooklynVegan podcast is Adam McIlwee of Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, who's also a former/founding member of Tigers Jaw, co-founder of GothBoiClique, member of Pay For Pain, and more. Adam joins us to discuss the new self-titled Wicca Phase album that's out now on Run For Cover. He discusses influences behind the album like Fairport Convention, The Pentangle, '90s dance music, and several non-musical influences; talks working with guest vocalist Zola Jesus and co-producer Ben Greenberg of Uniform; and more. We also get into a career-spanning chat, ranging from his early days coming up in the Scranton, PA punk scene to working with Lil Peep in GothBoiClique and much 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 http://distrokid.com/vip/brooklynvegan. Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Sammy Ciaramitaro, vocalist of Santa Cruz hardcore band Drain (and drummer of the now-defunct Gulch), joins us on the BrooklynVegan podcast in anticipation of Drain's sophomore album and first for Epitaph, Living Proof. It's a great album that expands upon the hardcore punk energy, thrash/groove metal riffs, and California warmth of their 2020 debut LP on Revelation Records, California Cursed, widening the band's sonic palette to include things like a rap interlude and a clean-vocal Descendents cover, and some of Sammy's most impactful lyricism yet. On the podcast, we dig into the new album and talk about Drain's upcoming tour with Drug Church, Gel, MSPAINT, Magnitude, Restraining Order, Combust, Gumm, Torena, and Outta Pocket (varying by date). We also discuss the hardcore scene pre-pandemic vs post-pandemic, being a hardcore band in the post-Turnstile era, gatekeeping, some of Sammy's formative experiences in hardcore, his time in Gulch, his love of the Grateful Dead and Drain's multiple homages to that band, and much more. And at the end, Sammy names five current hardcore bands he thinks any new hardcore fan should know. -- 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. Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Today's episode is an interview with Bob Nanna and Chris Broach of the massively influential '90s emo band Braid, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their classic 1998 album 'Frame & Canvas.' Bob and Chris discuss their own separate musical upbringings, their early days in the Chicago area scene, landing on the classic Braid sound, recording 'Frame & Canvas' with one of their musical heroes, J. Robbins of Jawbox, the emo explosion of the 2000s, the emo revival of the 2010s, and much more.   You can pick up our exclusive clear, white & blue splatter vinyl variant of the original mix of 'Frame & Canvas' in the BrooklynVegan store at https://shop.brooklynvegan.com/products/braid-frame-canvas-lp-limited-edition-only-300-made-white-inside-clear-w-blue-splatter-vinyl. Catch Braid on tour this year. -- 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. Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Fat Mike joins us on The BrooklynVegan Show to discuss the new Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas that he spearheaded, NOFX's final tour, and more. He tells us about some of his favorite artifacts in the museum, how Green Day were initially uninterested but had a change of heart and lent the museum items like Billie Joe Armstrong's classic "Blue" guitar, explains why certain bands were left out of the museum, and more.   Fat Mike also discusses his new project Codefendants, talks about how he first got into punk, gives his take on what the true start of punk was, spoke about the NOFX song that he originally wrote for blink-182, weighed in rising concert ticket prices and Live Nation, and much more.   For more on the Punk Rock Museum, visit https://www.thepunkrockmuseum.com/. For NOFX tour dates, visit the Fat Wreck Chords website. -- 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. Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Our latest podcast episode is an interview with Kat Moss, vocalist of one of the best bands in hardcore right now, Scowl. Our conversation centers on Scowl's excellent new EP Psychic Dance Routine, which finds Scowl incorporating more clean vocals than ever before and channelling '90s alternative rock influences like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and Hole, alongside their early hardcore influences like Negative Approach and Sheer Terror. We talk about working with producer Will Yip, Scowl's upcoming performance at Coachella, opening a recent Limp Bizkit tour, covering Fugazi at Sound & Fury, and much more. Psychic Dance Routine drops April 7 via Flatspot Records. Pick up our exclusive color vinyl variant in the BV shop. -- 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. Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

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!   --   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.   --   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.   --   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 --   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"