The BrooklynVegan Show: A Podcast About Music

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"

Kevin Devine

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

Rich Balling (The Sound of Animals Fighting)

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.

Walter Schreifels (Rival Schools, Quicksand, etc)

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.

Ian Shelton (Militarie Gun, Regional Justice Center)

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.

Best Emo & Post-Hardcore Albums of 2002

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.