After nearly a decade away, The Offspring came back with Let the Bad Times Roll by refusing to rush, refusing to preach, and refusing to pretend everything’s fine. “You have to address what you see happening,” Dexter Holland said.
“…the studio is limitless and that’s kind of our biggest problem.”
The Driver Era’s Ross Lynch and Rocky Lynch on Live at the Greek feeling like the end of a chapter, chasing new vibes a little too easily, and why breakup songs only exist because your phone won’t stop showing you old memories.
“…we were making Christmas records in the middle of summer, with lights and decorations everywhere.” Lee Loughnane on how Chicago accidentally carved out a whole holiday lane, why their Christmas songs work year-round, and how a trumpet player ended up singing Let It Snow.
Back in 2020, Air's Nicolas Godin was already calling it: pop songs sung by vocalists who don’t actually exist. Years before AI vocals became a real conversation. He also looks back on The Virgin Suicides, architecture as songwriting fuel, and why sensuality matters more than theory. Way ahead of the curve, per usual.
Adrian Belew didn’t plan on joining another band, but Gizmodrome changed all that. What started as a casual session with Stewart Copeland turned into a full-on, joy-fueled group with Mark King and Vittorio Cosma. Belew talks about rediscovering that “kids in a candy store” feeling, recording songs in two takes, and why the project reminds him of Remain in Light-era Talking Heads.
Cheap Trick didn’t overthink In Another World. Rick Nielsen says they “just kept recording,” tossed in Easter eggs when they showed up, and worried more about having fun than making a statement. From Bowie stories to Steve Jones crashing the party, it’s classic Cheap Trick energy — loose, loud, and smarter than it lets on.
Flashback with Glenn Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket, who walked me through 30 years of Bread & Circus, the darker corners of Dulcinea, misogyny’s grim “evergreen” status, and why they turned “Rock and Roll All Nite” into a campfire sing-along just to troll Kiss fans.
A flashback to 2019, when I got to hang with the Pixies on the set of Morning Joe to talk vampire-tooth guitars, gothic church sessions, and Charles admitting he screened each “unfiltered” podcast episode just to make sure he didn’t say anything stupid.
Tonight on WFPK: Billy Idol, Goo Goo Dolls' John Rzeznik, and Foo Fighters' Chris Shiflett!
I’ll be spinning their stories along with new indie, classic alt, and the kind of music trivia that makes you go, “Wait… is that true?” (Yes. Usually.)
6p ET on WFPK.
Come hang out. It’s cheaper than therapy and louder than whatever your neighbor’s doing.
Tadanobu Asano may have played the least trustworthy man in Shōgun, but he also stole the whole show. We talked about why Yabushige became a fan favorite, how rain-soaked Vancouver tested the cast, what that final look really meant, and why his punk band might be going ska next.
Tonight’s lineup is basically a Venn diagram of cool weirdos, and I’m parked right in the middle: Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Philip Selway from Radiohead, and H. Jon Benjamin — the voice in your head from Bob’s Burgers and Archer.
Plus music trivia, cool new cuts, classic favorites, and my occasional detour.
6p ET on WFPK. Come for the music, stay for the side quests.
Tonight on WFPK, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett drops in to talk shredding (obviously), G-Eazy shows up with receipts and opinions, and Jason Scott Lee proves he’s still got that quiet “don’t mess with me” gravitas (kidding, he's really nice).
Plus four hours of new indie, classic alt, music trivia, and whatever other detours I feel like taking.
Julia Michaels and Ben Rice didn’t just write songs for Disney’s Wish—they built a whole musical ecosystem, right down to casting the turtle in “I’m a Star.”
We talked spreadsheets, singing trees, Chris Pine going full villain, and what it actually feels like when Disney says, “Just do you.”
Pierson Fodé dropped by to talk about starring in A Merry Little Ex-Mas with Alycia Silverstone, his breakout year on Netflix, and working with Robert Zemeckis on The Last Mrs. Parrish. He also gets into shirtless slow-mo, Christmas movie clichés, and activism that goes beyond Hollywood.
Scoot McNairy’s Blood for Dust drops him into 1992 Montana—frozen fields, moral decay, and Kit Harington in full menace mode. “If you think it, the audience can see it,” Scoot says about playing Cliff, a desperate salesman turned criminal. He also talks mudding, Amy Adams, and why he hopes we’re on the edge of another ’90s indie film boom.
Otis Williams — the last original Temptation — talks All the Time, covering Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time,” and how long he plans to “ride the hell out of the horse.”
Lzzy Hale on Everest: “We rediscovered how to trust ourselves again. No rules, no demos, no backup plan — just, does it get us excited?” Halestorm’s 30 years in and still screaming like they just got started.
Midge Ure on touring with Howard Jones, dueting with Kate Bush, and pretending to be in Kraftwerk: “We’re not just the jukeboxes—we built the jukeboxes.”
John Prine never forgave scientists for demoting Pluto. So he wrote a song about it — and wound up with a career-capping album full of cosmic gripes, poker games with Dan Auerbach, and unfinished Phil Spector songs. “Basically, I’m pretty lazy,” he says. “But I get around to it.”
Nathaniel Rateliff’s And It’s Still Alright is part divorce album, part grief album, and somehow still a record about finding hope.
We talked about writing through loss, opening for the Stones, launching a cannabis line with Willie Nelson, and the beauty in being a Midwestern screw-up who just keeps writing through it all.
Ron Gallo dropped Heavy Meta and told me it’s basically chapter two of his life: “Music’s gotta rattle people, make them more conscious. Anything else doesn’t feel honest.” Also: one song started with him literally yelling in his head, Why do you have kids?
Les Claypool revived his Fearless Flying Frog Brigade after 20 years, complete with a full performance of Pink Floyd’s Animals. “This band was born out of desperation and fear,” he laughed. Then it morphed into a mix of Delirium, Purple Onion, and a whole lot of Floyd.
Sleater-Kinney's Little Rope is raw, urgent, and—somehow—still fun. We talked grief, Gang of Four riffs, floating on album covers, and why Corin sings more than ever: “We’re not done fighting.”
Anna Camp goes full post-apocalyptic femme fatale in NEO-DOME, a wild, Coen-meets-Mad Max dystopian pilot she also produced. “Instead of waiting for the phone to ring, I’m making the calls.”
Avril Lavigne calls it the album she’s always wanted to make: loud guitars, no holding back, and absolutely no apologies. We talked about Love Sux, falling in love while writing an anti-love album, working with Mark Hoppus and MGK, Sk8er Boi: The Movie, and making people cry at her shows.
What happens when you sign up for love in Paris… and end up in Texas?
I got to chat with #YvonneOrji, Madison Pettis, and Hannah Stocking about The Wrong Paris — the Netflix rom-com that flips the dating show trope on its head. Southern accents, improv chaos, ovulation energy (you read that right), and a lot of behind-the-scenes fun.
#NatalieMartinez is the low-key MVP of #BadMonkey. She reps Miami, cuts up arms (it’s fine, she’s the coroner) and keeps up with #VinceVaughn’s improv without breaking a sweat. Give her flowers, or at least a spinoff.
#SteveHowey is snapping necks, dodging vampires, and retiring from blowing out tendons.
The #Shameless alum stars in Netflix’s Day Shift with #JamieFoxx, Snoop Dogg (in a cowboy hat, obviously), and enough stunt choreography to make your ankles cry.
Also: taking on Arnold’s shoes in the #TrueLies TV reboot.
#MarkHamill says #TheLifeOfChuck is “the kind of once-in-a-lifetime movie that makes you believe people might still be decent if you squint hard enough.”
He talks to me about tackling #StephenKing’s least King-ish story, mentoring a 12-year-old co-star who knits between takes, and why his greatest acting horror wasn’t the Joker — it was meeting Bill Cosby.
#MayaHawke went to witches at age 11, replaced her knight’s breastplate with a “golden bubble,” and ended up with Chaos Angel — an album that stitches psychic exorcisms, mantras like “give up, be loved,” and a choir of friends telling her to chill. “Who needs witches when you’ve got friends like these?” she says. Chaos Angel might just be the spell we need. #StrangerThings indeed.
#HamishLinklater digs into Manhunt on #AppleTVPlus — why Lincoln’s boots on the desk mattered, why Booth was way more than just a bad actor, and why conspiracies never really go away.
#MayaHawke drops by tonight — yes, Robin from Stranger Things, the voice of Anxiety in Inside Out 2, Flannery O'Connor in Wildcat, and somehow still finds time to make dreamy indie folk that’ll wreck you.
I’ll also spin Blur, Ramones, Living Colour, Linda Ronstadt, Marvin Gaye, Bjork, Enigma, new Samia, and the Charlie’s Angels theme because priorities.
Hard to believe it’s been two years since we lost #RobbieRobertson. Back in 2019, he told me he’d be “sipping lemonade on a beach” by now. He was still scoring Scorsese films, writing his story, remembering is time in #TheBand, and all the moments that made him a legend.
What happens when a synth-pop legend accidentally invents his own Blade Runner 3 soundtrack? #VinceClarke says Songs of Silence was never supposed to be an album — just “sound experiments for my own sanity.”
Why does his cat hate his acoustic guitar?
Why does ambient feel so human?
Why does #BladeRunner never get old?
How do you pronounce Louisville? #DesiLydic says do it like you’ve had a few bourbons — then sit back and watch her skewer politics, her own dance team fails, and the art of humiliating yourself for laughs on #TheDailyShow.
Renée Elise Goldsberry just dropped one of the most genre-defying debut albums I’ve heard all year. She dropped by to talk Who I Really Am, reuniting with the #Hamilton cast, and the future of #Girls5Eva.
#DavidAlanGrier calls himself “fossilized, dead yet still breathing.” He’s been Santa in Candy Cane Lane, a preacher in The Color Purple, Antoine Merriweather on In Living Color, Carl Bently in Jumanjii, and the only man who can gossip with Martin Short while stuck inside a clock costume.
Tonight’s guest is #FeliciaDay — so brace yourself for tales of Buffy, Supernatural, The Guild, MST3K, and whatever else she geeks out about.
I’ll also be spinning #Pulp for your Britpop itch, #Stereolab to confuse your hipster friends, Björk to make you feel things you can’t pronounce, Tribe and #JanelleMonáe to raise the collective IQ, IDLES to scare the neighbors, and new Little Simz because you deserve good things.
