The BrooklynVegan Show: A Podcast About Music

Adam McIlwee on Wicca Phase, Tigers Jaw, Lil Peep & more

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.
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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.
Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Sammy Ciaramitaro (Drain, Gulch)

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.
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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.
Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Braid (Bob Nanna & Chris Broach)

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.
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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.
Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Fat Mike (NOFX)

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.
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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.
Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Kat Moss (Scowl)

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.
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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.
Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Mike & Nate Kinsella (American Football, LIES)

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.

Best Emo & Post-Hardcore Albums Turning 10 in 2023

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.

Knapsack

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.

Conor Murphy (Foxing, Smidley)

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.

Best Hardcore of 2022

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"