The Guestlist With Sean Cannon

DOWNLOAD Sorry it took a minute to get this one up. I’ve been in New York meeting up with folks and recording interviews. Anyway, back to the matter at hand: my conversation with John Darnielle. I’d been trying to get John on the show for 10 months, after having an interview scheduled in January (which [...]

DOWNLOAD To say that Derek Sheen is a music geek is an understatement. In fact, I think he and I nerded out about music more after we finished up in the studio than we did during the interview — which is saying something. We also covered some non-music topics, though, like bananas and his Flintstones [...]

DOWNLOAD Jimmy Pardo makes a second appearance on After Dark to talk about the fourth annual Pardcast-a-Thon (which is taking place Nov. 23), his annual homage to old-time telethons. And like any good telethon, the 12-hour live event helps raise funds for a great cause, Smile Train.

DOWNLOAD Kevin Murphy and I recently agreed that it’s really easy to hate John Roderick. Well, let me rephrase that. It’s really easy to be jealous of John, because he’s just so good at everything. I mean, how many people can spin a yard about corn chips into an in-depth philosophical and sociological conversation about [...]

DOWNLOAD Here’s another classic After Dark episode to tide you over until series 6 premieres next week. Pitchfork Media founder Ryan Schreiber is quite possibly the most powerful music nerd on the Web. We touched on the importance of curation in today’s new media landscape in addition to geeking out about music a lot…of course.

DOWNLOAD Since we’re on the usual two-week break between series — and since we’ve got so many episodes now that it’s easy to miss some of the gems — I decided to post a couple of classic After Dark conversations this week. First up is Paul Scheer. If you listen, you’ll learn all about his [...]

DOWNLOAD So this is a real thing that actually happened in real life…

DOWNLOAD I had no idea what to expect when I sat down to chat with David Liebe Hart and R. Stevie Moore — two cult personalities with pretty much nothing in common, other than the off-kilter fan bases they’ve accrued after years of toiling in obscurity. Would it be the most compelling interview ever? Would [...]

DOWNLOAD Don’t get me wrong, At the Drive-In wrote some amazing songs. But more than anything they were spellbinding because of their explosiveness and unpredictability. I recently had a chance to chat with Jim Ward about how those attributes were responsible for the band’s demise, their enduring sense of brotherhood and how that led to [...]

DOWNLOAD I have only one word: BIRDEMIC! OK, here are more words: Michael Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett are planning a live Rifftrax for the ages. The boys are riffing on one of the best bad movies ever and simulcasting it to hundreds of theaters across the nation on Oct. 25.

DOWNLOAD I thought Kurt Braunohler was pretty awesome before I had a chance to talk with him, but afterward my opinion of him skyrocketed. That’s because I found out that we’re what you might call kindred spirits. Well, that might sound a little too melodramatic, so let’s just say we’re soulmates. At least as far [...]

DOWNLOAD A couple of years ago, I had the chance to do a brief interview with the stoic J Mascis. During the chat, I made Mascis giggle, which was amazing! So when I had another opportunity to talk with him recently, I declared it my solemn mission to pull that very same laugh out of [...]

DOWNLOAD Considering that Mike Birbiglia is a sextuple threat — comedian, actor, director, screenwriter, author and interpretive jazz dancer (or at least I’m assuming he can do that last one) — you’d think if nothing else, he’d be a little out there. But no, he was one of the most down-to-earth jazz dancers I’ve ever [...]

DOWNLOAD I never expected to be discussing the relative merits of Nicki Minaj over Lady Gaga with Ira Glass. And while I’m not sure what I did expect when talking to the king of public radio, Roman and Mother Monster weren’t among the bullet points in my mind. Sure, we covered a lot of other [...]

DOWNLOAD I learned one important thing about Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear — they’re both superb Tuvan throat singers. In fact, I might just team up with those dudes and Shelby Cinca to record some new age Tuvan barbershop rag. Oh yeah, and we talked about their new record, Shields. Lots of [...]