The Guestlist With Sean Cannon

DOWNLOAD Very rarely do interviews go from topics like miming “The Thinker” with a toilet superimposed in the photo to discussions of identity and self-awareness. But that’s what happened during my conversation with Doug Jones. And in a bit of strange coincidence, he picked a song from Whitney Houston as the song he wanted played [...]

DOWNLOAD What needs to be said about a conversation that involves Cookie Puss? Not much, that’s what. That said, there’s plenty of gold to mine in this interview above and beyond ice cream cake — like discussions about which Neil Young record is his best or the advantages of being a studio wizard when you’re [...]

DOWNLOAD Considering how much John Sellers and I love to talk Guided by Voices, this conversation could’ve turned into a self-indulgent fanboy fest of Pollardian proportions pretty easily. Instead, we only devoted about 30 percent of it to the Fading Captain and his platoon of hard-drinking mirthmakers. The rest centered on Midwestern life and Huey [...]

DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD On occasion, I’ll post tracks from my sessions with folks in the WFPK studios. Here’s the first one, from R. Ring. When Mike Montgomery of Ampline and Kelley Deal of the Breeders do the Wonder Twins unite thingy, they take the form of R. Ring. These two jams are the only pieces of [...]

DOWNLOAD During our conversation, Andy Greenwald and I took on the evolution of pop culture over the last decade. We also discussed what Grantland.com is accomplishing online. More importantly, he mentioned LiveJournal and Friendster in the same sentence. Most importantly though, he got “emo about Fleetwood Mac.” His words, not mine. I wish they were [...]

DOWNLOAD As soon as you set eyes on Sound Supply, your “why didn’t I think of that?!?!?” reflex kicks in. It’s an intriguing little startup company that’s run by the Mortensen brothers, who previously spent time playing in bands and putting out records. Their past definitely shines through in the mission and implementation of Sound [...]

DOWNLOAD Here’s something I never thought would happen: that Craig Finn would be more interested at any given moment by hot country than by hardcore. But sure enough, the combination of introducing Europe to the Void/Faith split LP through multiple think pieces and having his car radio stuck on a pop country station accomplished just [...]

DOWNLOAD Surprisingly, the Ethel Mirman joke at the beginning of my conversation with Eugene Mirman (which was at the behest of Kyle Meredith, mind you) didn’t submarine the entire thing from the get go. I mean, if things had gotten weird, we wouldn’t have discussed things like time travel, wifesitting or miniature Bill Gates. Yep, [...]

DOWNLOAD It’s not like people are beating down Dan Didier’s door, begging for a new Promise Ring record. But just in case that happens soon, he has the perfect strategy for dealing with said situation: release the last demos TPR recorded before initially disbanding. According to Dan, they were awful. When people hear the gross [...]

DOWNLOAD It was edifying to discuss selfhood and artistic expression (even in subtle terms) with someone whose identity was bound up in an external entity years ago. It’s not like Jason had to completely reinvent himself after The Promise Ring hung it up, but it’s interesting to examine the idea of defining who you are [...]

DOWNLOAD Ryan Penagos is living the nerd dream. I should know. I’m a nerd. He gets paid to spread the word about what Marvel Comics is doing, from books to movies to TV. But we also share another equally nerdy passion: music. Needless to say, a conversation between dudes pulling double nerd duty is like [...]

DOWNLOAD When Dave O’Brien postulates that guys like Merle Haggard, Public Enemy and Johnny Cash are the epitome of punk, don’t laugh it off. He might be a baseball writer, but he is spot on with that evaluation. The dude knows his stuff, from rap to rock to country to funk. So when he starts [...]

DOWNLOAD My conversation with Sub Pop head honcho Jonathan Poneman was particularly edifying, at least partially because he helped put my faux nostalgia in check — I say faux nostalgia because you can’t wax sentimental about the indie scene circa 1988-1993 when you didn’t actually experience it. Either way, one quote from Poneman still stands [...]

DOWNLOAD I’ve admired Richard Swift ever since I first heard his keyboard work on Old by Starflyer 59. So it was nice to find out that have a few things in common, like our affinity for cheesy music. Hells yes, INXS and Toto! Oh yeah, and we talk about Swift’s work with Damien Jurado and [...]

DOWNLOAD I’m going to start with a small request: Don’t boycott Damien Jurado just because he doesn’t like The Lord of the Rings. His new album, Maraqopa, is too good to ignore. I mean, sure he disparaged guys who go to Yes concerts wearing wizard capes during our conversation, but he also professed his love [...]