Drummer Linda Pitmon brings her abundance of power, groove and talent to the supergroups the Baseball Project and Filthy Friends plus other bands. Growing up in Minneapolis, she banged on Tupperware to replicate the fills of her favorite songs. She had indie success with Zuzu’s Petals, then moved to New York, where she connected musically and personally with Steve Wynn, now her husband. She tells of the joy of recording and performing songs about baseball with Wynn, Scott McCaughey and R.E.M.’s ...
Jul 21, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Soul jazz organist Ronnie Foster works as a solo artist but also played on Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life (“Summer Soft”), George Benson’s Breezin’ and albums by the Jacksons, Robert Flack, Grant Green and others. His first album, the scorching Two Headed Freap , came out in 1972 on Blue Note Records and was just remastered by Kevin Gray. Fifty years later he’s got a new Blue Note album, Reboot , his first release in 36 years. He’s also got great stories that cover a half century’s wor...
Jul 14, 2022•54 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Peter Holsapple is the dB’s sole-singer songwriter when the band finally lands a U.S. record deal, but the excellent Like This is undercut by issues with the mix and distribution. Recording and releasing The Sound of Music is a fraught experience as well, and when the dB’s finally split, Holsapple accepts an offer to tour and then to record with R.E.M. He plays on R.E.M.’s breakthrough single (“Losing My Religion”) and album ( Out of Time ), but as he recounts in heartbreaking detail, a dispute ...
Jul 07, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 40
You may have seen Peter Holsapple playing live with R.E.M. or Hootie and the Blowfish, but you should know his own music. He co-led and then led the dB's, writing and singing such smart, tuneful songs as "Black and White," "Big Brown Eyes," "Living a Lie," "Neverland," "Amplifier" and "Love Is for Lovers." He also has played in the Continental Drifters, made three excellent duo albums with Chris Stamey, and toured and recorded under his own name. In part one of our conversation, he recalls being...
Jun 30, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Spoon's Jim Eno doesn’t appear to be doing anything fancy when he drums, yet his deceptively groovy playing makes you want to move. He and frontman Britt Daniel, the two remaining original members, keep Spoon sounding unmistakably like Spoon amid the band's constant growth, changes and innovations. Much of the band’s guitar-heavy latest album, Lucifer on the Sofa , was recorded at Eno’s Austin, Tex., studio, with Eno having established himself as a producer with Spoon and artists such as Alejand...
Jun 23, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 38
In audiophile communities it’s common to read raves about “the Bellman Cut” of an album because if Chris Bellman mastered it, it probably sounds great. One 2021 Record Store Day release even came with a sticker boasting “a killer lacquer cut by Chris Bellman.” How did he go from working on disco-era dance tracks to having the original masters of the first five Van Halen albums land on his desk? What impact did mastering Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill have on his career? What was special ...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 37
The continuation of our conversation with the Devo co-leader goes deeper and darker into the band's history and our ominous cultural landscape. What caused Devo to split the first time, and why does Gerald Casale feel like he must do the heavy lifting now? What does he think of Mark Mothersbaugh's movie-scoring career? What was his experience directing videos by Cars, Rush and Foo Fighters? What are the stories behind his Jihad Jerry solo project and Devo's energetic reunion album, Something for...
Jun 09, 2022•47 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Devo’s Gerald Casale helped conceive the concept of “de-evolution,” but even he didn’t think things would get so bad. He’s also not happy about that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame snub, and he has frustrations with band co-leader Mark Mothersbaugh. Devo’s striking visuals and presentation, often conceived by Casale, may lead some to overlook this groundbreaking band’s power. We dig into the music here, how Casale and Mothersbaugh wrote those songs and who did what. He also discusses Devo’s Saturday ...
Jun 02, 2022•47 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Filmmaker Judd Apatow listens to other people as much as he projects his own voice. His new documentary, George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO, HBO Max) , is a complex, intimate portrait of one of the most impactful comedians ever. His new book, Sicker in the Head: More Conversations about Life and Comedy , finds him sharing tales of pandemic life, depression and expression with creative people including David Letterman, Hanna Gadsby and Lin-Manuel Miranda. In his latest comedy, The Bubble , Apato...
May 26, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Delvon Lamarr can play almost every instrument but one, but he’s happiest behind his Hammond organ powering soul-jazz instrumentals that suggest what might happen if Booker T. and the MG’s met the Meters on a rocket into the 21st Century. The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio makes hot, groovy music with seemingly telepathic interplay. Why does Lamarr prefer the trio format, even if it requires him to play bass on the organ? What’s the secret to naming instrumentals (and the story behind “Pull Your Pants...
May 19, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Chef Sarah Stegner is not only one of the most talented chefs in the Chicago area but also among the most impactful. A two-time James Beard Award-winner, she scaled fine dining’s heights at the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago, then decided she’d rather share with more people her vision of how ingredients and guests should be treated, so she opened Prairie Grass Café. She also co-founded the trailblazing Green City Market and advocates for women in restaurants through The Abundance Set...
May 12, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Jeff Murphy makes brilliant power pop with his brother John and their friend Gary Klebe in the band Shoes. They began by recording at home in Zion, Ill., released indelible songs (“Tomorrow Night,” "Your Imagination") and albums ( Present Tense , Tongue Twister ) for Elektra and went into heavy rotation on MTV when the channel debuted in 1981. Then they discovered they were better off recording and releasing their own music. How can a band thrive with three equal singer-songwriters? Why are reco...
May 05, 2022•1 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Chris Stamey played with Mitch Easter and Alex Chilton before forming the dB’s and producing Pylon and other bands, but he has created a formidable body of his own work. His songwriting and arranging have grown in sophistication and skill, and he has written an illuminating memoir, A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories, that immerses us in his artistic development amid that city’s transformative rock scene. Here he talks about Chilton, the dB’s, music theory, the smell of analog...
Apr 28, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Justin Roberts is a first-rate songwriter who happens to make music for kids. His songs are intuitive, funny and catchy, and four of his albums are Grammy nominated, including 2020’s Wild Life , the first he wrote after becoming a parent himself. Talking in his sunny living room, he digs into the craft of songwriting and the business of releasing his own music. How does he distinguish between songs he writes for kids and adults? How can he thrive when his audience keeps growing older? How has pa...
Apr 21, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Nashville-based mastering engineer Ryan Smith works on high-profile vinyl releases such as recent albums by Adele and Taylor Swift, but he’s become renowned for the fantastic-sounding reissues he has mastered. As a member of the Vinyl Me, Please record club, I have become happily familiar with the phrase “AAA Lacquers Cut From The Original Analog Tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound.” In this illuminating conversation, Smith discusses his approach to an optimal recording, the level of detail po...
Apr 14, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Drummer Terry Chambers was the motor that powered XTC through its first five albums before frontman Andy Partridge broke down and abruptly ended the band’s touring days. Chambers left soon afterward, moved to Australia and was away from music for three decades—in part trying to pay off the massive debt from that cancelled tour. Yet recently he moved back to Swindon, England, and teamed with XTC songwriter/bassist Colin Moulding on a new band, TC&I. When Moulding pulled the plug on that proje...
Apr 07, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Whether you consider him country, bluegrass, folk or rock, Robbie Fulks is one of our greatest songwriters and an awfully talented guitarist and singer as well. He can be satirical and biting but also can pierce your heart, as the penetrating character studies on his albums Gone Away Backward and the Grammy-nominated Upland Stories have done. Having long lived in Chicago, Robbie moved to Los Angeles a few years ago. Why would he do that? He also talks about his writing process—does he write when...
Mar 31, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Some songs you enjoy in the background while others take up residence in your bones. Sam Phillips’ music is in the latter category. She was Christian pop artist Leslie Phillips until she outgrew those constraints and, as Sam, began releasing such transcendent songs as “Holding On to the Earth” and “I Need Love” and wonderful albums such as the spirited The Indescribable Wow, the tour de force Martinis and Bikinis and the intimate Fan Dance . What threat did she make to get released from her Chri...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Colin Blunstone has one of the sweetest, most distinct voices in rock, yet his band, the Zombies, has a bizarre history. It broke through with “She’s Not There” and “Tell Her No,” then went three years before the release of its second album, the masterful Odessey and Oracle . By then the Zombies had split, and when “Time of the Season” became a hit almost a year later, fake versions of the band, including one featuring members of a soon-to-be-famous group, toured the U.S. Now Blunstone and songw...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 24
He’s been known as Miami Steve, Little Steven and Steve/Steven/Stevie Van Zandt. He’s been Bruce Springsteen’s and Tony Soprano’s No. 2 guy, the artistic force behind Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, the leader of his own Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul and the star of Netflix’s Lilyhammer . He united rockers and rappers to battle South African apartheid with “Sun City,” oversees three satellite radio stations and a record label, wrote the memoir Unrequited Infatuations and he wish...
Mar 10, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 23
The Mekons, the Waco Brothers, Four Lost Souls, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts—those are just some of Jon Langford’s bands, and he’s an accomplished visual artist to boot. Since moving to Chicago from England almost 30 years ago, Langford has become one of the city’s greatest assets, and during the pandemic he has performed constantly in support of small clubs and other good causes. He recalls the influence of reggae and country music on the early British punk scene, how the Mekons never were in a r...
Mar 03, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 22
When singer-songwriter Alex Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens played their first Big Star concert in almost 20 years in 1993, Stephens said it was the first time the band had performed before a paying audience that actually knew their songs. This soulful Memphis power-pop group’s initial three albums— #1 Record , Radio City and Third/Sister Lovers —barely were heard upon release but now stand as all-time greats. Stephens, the original lineup’s sole survivor and one of rock’s good guys, recalls t...
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 33 min•Season 1Ep. 21
If you pay close attention to the vinyl world, you know the name of Kevin Gray. He’s been mastering recordings since the early 1970s, and his name is on some of the best-sounding reissues being released, including albums by Blue Note jazz artists, Aretha Franklin, T-Rex, the Kinks, John Prine and a much-sought-after version of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon . What distinguishes his work from other mastering engineers, such as previous Caropop guest Bernie Grundman? Does a great master re...
Feb 17, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Camper Van Beethoven bassist Victor Krummenacher is a standout player in a standout band that was peaking when it imploded. This former Wired art director has a journalist’s eye for detail as he recalls how this inventive group sprung from a shambling Southern California scene, covered miles of stylistic ground, recorded songs such as “Take the Skinheads Bowling” and "Pictures of Matchstick Men” (a radio-ready cover the label ordered up for Key Lime Pie ) but could not sustain the happy energy o...
Feb 10, 2022•1 hr 51 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Amy Landecker is a working actor of many talents. She was Sarah Pfefferman on the Emmy-winning series Transparent , plays detective Nancy Costello on the Showtime series Your Honor and made an indelible impression as the heavy-lidded Mrs. Samsky in the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man . She has done tons of voiceover work and is skilled in “Primitive Sound Emanation”—an extremely loud monkey screech YOU WILL HEAR in this conversation. She also discusses the script she's writing, how COVID recently h...
Feb 03, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 18
In Part 2 of our Caropop conversation, we dive into the most famous album that Steve Albini produced, Nirvana’s In Utero . Which version does he consider to be definitive? Why does he think the controversy over his mixes, with the two singles remixed by Scott Litt, was overblown and reflects a misunderstanding of how musicians think? How did he feel about creating a new In Utero mix with the surviving band members 20 years later? Also: Do fellow producers resent him for not taking artist royalti...
Jan 27, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Steve Albini raised his profile while recording Nirvana, the Pixies, the Breeders, P.J. Harvey and more, but he never became part of the rock machine. He works only on analog equipment, refuses to accept producer royalties and takes pride in remaining accessible to a wide variety of artists. Part 1 of this Caropop conversation takes place at his Chicago recording studio, Electrical Audio, as he discusses analog vs. digital technology, whether the digital revolution has been more of a blessing or...
Jan 20, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 16
When Dave Gregory joined XTC in 1979, he transformed the band through his muscular, melodic guitar playing, occasional keyboards and, on "1000 Umbrellas," a string arrangement. Gregory always found ways to elevate singer-guitarist Andy Partridge’s and bassist Colin Moulding’s tuneful songs, such as “Generals and Majors” and “Senses Working Overtime.” But Gregory, frustrated by Partridge’s controlling ways, quit in 1999, and the band hasn’t released new material in more than 20 years. Although al...
Jan 13, 2022•1 hr 58 min•Season 1Ep. 15
He photographed the Beatles during the Get Back project and in their final photo session. He shot the Rolling Stones during their peak years and was airlifted out of Altamont Speedway with them. He provided the indelible images for Who’s Next and other album covers. Ethan Russell was a young man from San Francisco who moved to London and became a rock ‘n’ roll photographer before that was considered a profession. He bonded with John Lennon yet kept his distance from subjects because his job was ...
Jan 06, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Chicago-born producer Shel Talmy and the Kinks revolutionized rock with the distorted-guitar attack of “You Really Got Me,” so impressing Pete Townshend that the Who leader wrote “I Can’t Explain” as a Kinks-like song to lure Talmy to produce them too. Talmy did, starting with “My Generation,” and also produced the Easybeats (“Friday on My Mind”), the Creation (“Making Time”) and a young David Bowie while continuing with the Kinks. Now living in Los Angeles, Talmy has tales to tell about all of ...
Dec 30, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 13
