This special edition episode is an interview with Carl Newman, the primary songwriter, singer, and guitarist of The New Pornographers. This conversation is focused on his songwriting process and working with Neko Case and the rest of his bandmates to flesh out his compositions. The band's new record Continue As A Guest is out now, and the band will…

This special episode is a nice long interview with Will Sheff, a musician best known as the songwriter and frontman of Okkervil River. We talk about his new album Nothing Special, which is his first record under his own name, and why he decided to step away from the Okkervil River name. We get into some fairly deep stuff about music and creativity …

This episode features Billboard journalist Eric Renner Brown, who has spent a lot of the past few years covering the concert industry for Pollstar. We talk about his experience of covering the industry through the chaos of the first phase of the pandemic, and what's been happening since things have mostly resumed in the current phase of the pandemi…

This episode features Louie, the host of the Pop Pantheon podcast. We talk about the show and his history as a DJ and along the way go off on tangents about several pop stars including Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Rihanna. If you love pop this episode is for you!By Matthew Perpetua

This episode is a marathon of all four episodes of FLOPUARY, a miniseries meditation on the concept of flopping by myself and Molly O'Brien of And Introducing. The miniseries was previously behind the paywall on the Fluxblog Patreon and originally came out in February of this year. We cover a lot of interesting ideas in this one, I'm really proud o…

Everyone's favorite sporadically produced and confusingly released Steely Dan podcast is back! This time Jesse Hawken and I are joined by the writer Carrie Courogen to talk about recent Dan shows, the whole Aimee Mann thing, a recently unearthed Dan cover of Joni Mitchell, and a bunch of classic songs including "Deacon Blues," "Glamour Profession,"…

This episode features Brian Hiatt, the host of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast and one of the most prolific features writers in the history of that magazine. In this conversation we talked about his long career at Rolling Stone, how he approaches talking to some of the most famous people in the world, and changes in what people want from artist…

This week’s episode features Briana Cheng, an A&R for 4AD and owner of the artist management company B4. We talk about what she does, how she works with new artists, and how high personal stakes put her in the position to take working in the music industry very seriously from a young age. There’s some clips of songs by artists Briana works with thr…

This episode features Karina Longworth, creator and host of the long-running film history podcast You Must Remember This. In this conversation we talk about her current ongoing series Erotic 80s/90s, the formative influence of Madonna, MTV's The Real World, art school, the fallout of the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial, and her approach to curating h…

This episode features Nabil Ayers, president of the Beggars Banquet label group and author of the new memoir My Life in the Sunshine. We talk about the book, which is largely about his complicated relationship with his biological father, the musician Roy Ayers, and also get into his extensive experience in the record industry.…

Here's the first episode of a new season of Fluxpod! Tom Scharpling is one of the best broadcasters in the world – he's the host of The Best Show, in which he frequently collaborates with his long-running comedy partner Jon Wurster, and the co-host of Double Threat along with Julie Klausner. This is a long and fun conversation that covers a lot of …

Just checking in to let you know that a new season of Fluxpod will begin in the first week of June with special guest Tom Scharpling. Tune in! Tell people about the show! Check out the Patreon with all-new miniseries for subscribers!By Matthew Perpetua

This episode features my old friend Daniel Ralston, who talks a bit about his forthcoming podcast investigating the bizarre disappearance of a former member of Iron Butterfly, and then a lot about his experience as a bartender in Malibu. Along the way we talk about Bob Dylan, California music generally, Paul McCartney, and Oasis.…

This episode features Ryan and Troy from __antiart__, an excellent new music publication that mainly lives on Instagram. We talk about how they got the blog started, discuss Kanye West and Phoebe Bridgers a bit, and then get into some of their favorite records of 2021 including Arca, Japanese Breakfast, Drakeo the Ruler, Tyler the Creator, JPEGMAFI…

This episode features Lila Ramani and Bri Aronow of the band Crumb, who discuss the experience of making their excellent new album Ice Melt before and after the pandemic hit, their methods and creative inspirations, and their decision to self-release all of their music. The Crumb songs featured in this episode are "BNR," "L.A.," and "Balloon," all …

Jesse Hawken of Junk Filter is back for another episode of Danpilled, our sporadically produced Steely Dan series! This episode covers the new live albums plus discussion of the songs "Aja," "Dirty Work," "Razor Boy," "Night by Night," "Your Gold Teeth II," "Everything You Did," "Time Out of Mind," "The Second Arrangement," and "The Goodbye Look."…

This episode is an interview with arts critic Douglas Wolk, covering his career as a music critic going back to the early 1990s on through his transition to writing mainly about comics. We discuss his new book All of the Marvels, which he wrote after reading virtually everything Marvel Comics has ever published. Come to get a glimpse into the music…

This is a segment from my recent POPTOBER miniseries with Chris Conroy in which we discussed U2's maligned and misunderstood 1997 album Pop in great detail. If you'd like to hear the whole series sign up for the Fluxpod Patreon, where you can also find my miniseries on Sonic Youth and Led Zeppelin, with more miniseries to come.…

Recurring guests Molly O'Brien and Chris Wade of And Introducing are back to talk about their recent experiences at two festivals aimed at very different demographics - middle aged rock fans at Riot Fest in Chicago and NYC area teenagers at Governor's Ball in Queens. Artists discussed include Patti Smith, Morrissey, The Smashing Pumpkins, Motion Ci…

This episode is an interview with Ade Blackburn, the singer of the long-running band Clinic. This conversation gets into a lot of the band's motivations and methods, from the Liverpool group's early classics Internal Wrangler and Walking with Thee on through their new album Fantasy Island.By Matthew Perpetua

Fluxpod is back from hiatus with a long conversion with Derek Miller from Sleigh Bells. We talk a lot about their excellent new album Texis and the early days of the band with detours into surfing, Korn, Deftones, INXS, Radiohead, M.I.A., Tyler the Creator, guitars, and moving from Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley.…

This is an excerpt from Zeptember, a four part series on the Fluxpod Patreon each week of September in which Sean T. Collins and I go deep on Led Zeppelin and their body of work. This clip is the beginning of Zeptember II, in which we discuss the albums IV, Houses of the Holy, and Physical Graffiti.By Matthew Perpetua

This episode features one of my favorite podcast/radio guys Bryan Quinby, the co-host of Street Fight Radio and The P.O.D. Kast. We talk a bit about his experience at this year's Gathering of the Juggalos and then get into a bunch of rock music he's loved over the years including Korn, Radiohead, The Cars, Ty Segall, King Khan & BBQ Show, Type O Ne…

This episode features the comic book writer Sam Humphries and it's basically a freeform "dudes hanging out" episode of the show. We talk about a lot of things including experiences at shows, Prince, U2, Radiohead, Beck, 90s drum and bass, collecting imports, the importance of preserving live venues, and an awful but memorable experience I had at a …

This episode features returning champ Larry Fitzmaurice, the author of the excellent music criticism newsletter Last Donut of the Night. This time around we discuss his recent essay about "pop's new emotionalism" starting around 2017, which serves as a good springboard into some other adjacent topics in music and music writing over the past few yea…

This episode features the photographer Laura June Kirsch, whose forthcoming book Romantic Lowlife Fantasies collects a body of work in which she documented DIY music scenes, musical subcultures, and music festivals from 2008-2016. We talk about her background in photographer, her approach to environmental portraiture, and how photography has change…

This episode features the comics creator Hazel Newlevant and is 100% totally focused on Of Montreal and Kevin Barnes' vibrant, fun, and extremely emotional body of work. We get into a little bit of almost all the major Of Montreal records, with a particular focus on Skeletal Lamping.By Matthew Perpetua

This is a hangout episode featuring Jill Krajewski, a music critic and senior social editor for Vice. We talk about Halsey's forthcoming collaboration with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails, the abuse allegations against Marilyn Manson and Rhye, St. Vincent, Jack Antonoff, late period U2, and the "Dave Grohl industrial complex."…

Here's the third Danpilled episode, originally aired on Jesse Hawken's Junk Filter podcast. In this episode Jesse and I talk about Steely Dan's most summery tunes including "Glamour Profession," "Do It Again," "Bad Sneakers," "King of the World," and "Kid Charlemagne."By Matthew Perpetua

This episode is a classic “Jukebox Jury” with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. We discuss new music by Olivia Rodrigo, Lovejoy, Gus Dapperton, Billie Eilish, Aespa, Vaultboy, Foo Fighters, Bella Poarch, PinkPantheress, Justus Bennetts, and more.By Matthew Perpetua

Here's the second half of my hangout episode with Sean T. Collins, which was originally only available for Patreon subscribers. We talk about a lot of things in this one, including Primal Scream, Peaches, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Cake, Moby, Deftones, Kenny Rogers, Kiss, The Killers, Benny Mardones, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Live, …

American painter, musician, and internet radio personality Jake Longstreth is here to talk about Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices' body of work from the late '80s through 2004. If you're not really into GBV I promise you this will still be pretty entertaining!By Matthew Perpetua

Molly O'Brien from And Introducing and Rebecca Alter from Vulture join me to discuss the past, present, and future of fast food/pop star collaborations. We talk about BTS, J Balvin, and Travis Scott's meals with McDonald's, Shawn Mendes' Chipotle burrito bowl, and Mariah Carey's cookies, and game out what other musicians and chains should do in the…

Vanity Fair writer Erin Vanderhoof is on the show to chat about the post-Brexit wave of indie bands in the U.K. and Ireland, including Black Midi, Courting, Shame, Yard Act, Legss, etc. You can read my article about the emerging scene – which is largely focused on Squid, Drying Cleaning and Black Country, New Road - over at NPR. Erin and I recorded…

This episode, which is entirely about Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins from 1991 through 1999, features Julia Gfrörer, the writer and artist of the graphic novels Vision, Laid Waste, and Black Is the Color, and co-host of the podcast Lament Configuration. You can find her t-shirt designs on Threadless and visit her Etsy shop.…

This week I have Jack Shepherd of the Babysitters Club Club on to go deep on R.E.M. - we discuss 30 songs from all over their catalog, at least one song from each of the 15 albums! If this is not enough for you, there's yet more of this as a bonus episode on the Patreon.By Matthew Perpetua

This episode is a sequel to my appearance on Jesse Hawken's show Junk Filter in which we went deep on Steely Dan. This time Jesse and I go EVEN DEEPER by focusing entirely on songs, with discussions of 17 classics including "Show Biz Kids," "Deacon Blues," "Chain Lightning," "Josie," "FM," "Pretzel Logic," "Reelin' in the Years," "Black Cow," and "…

This is an episode of Jesse Hawken's podcast Junk Filter in which I guest starred to spend a little over an hour talking about Steely Dan. I'm featuring it here both to get you to check out Jesse's show and hear me on it, but also because the next episode of Fluxpod will feature Jesse and we're going to go further down the Steely Dan rabbit hole. I…

This episode features the veteran music critic and academic Eric Weisbard, author of the new book Songbooks: The Literature of American Popular Music. This conversation covers his career from early days in the San Francisco critic scene of the late 80s/early 90s, his work as a key writer at Spin in the mid-90s, his experience co-editing the influen…

This week's episode is a clip show intended as a starting point for new listeners. If you'd like to get someone into the show, this is something you can pass along! I'd appreciate it if you did. Here's a run down of the segments in this collection – each clip is around 5-12 minutes or so. • Heather Havrilesky on Fleetwood Mac • Nick Sylvester on fl…

This episode features Chris Ott, a music writer best known for his Shallow Rewards videos and podcasts and his 33 1/3 book about Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures. We go deep on a lot of topics including music gear, CDs, online music communities, and IRL scenes. Also, be sure to check out the new episode of Junk Filter where I talk about Steely Dan …

This episode features Heather Havrilesky, the author of the Ask Polly and Ask Molly advice columns as well as the books What If This Were Enough? and How To Be A Person In The World. We spend a bit of time at the top talking about observations on generational differences before jumping into the main event – judging the advice given in various hit s…

This episode features the musicians Matthew E. White and Lonnie Holley. In this conversation we talk about their new collaborative album Broken Mirror, A Selfie Reflection, which was inspired by early '70s jazz fusion, specifically Miles Davis' classic On the Corner. We also discuss White's company Spacebomb, which is a studio/label/artist manageme…

This episode features Larry Fitzmaurice, a veteran music critic who recently launched an excellent newsletter called Last Donut of the Night. This conversation is largely focused on music media - both independent, like Fluxblog and Last Donut, and our experiences working for corporate publications that are now largely driven by metrics and social m…

In this special episode of Fluxpod I am joined by Molly O’Brien and Chris Wade from And Introducing for a symposium on the topic of PARTY ROCKING. We define the concept of party rocking, explore its aesthetics, consider its origins, and ponder its social and political implications. We talk a lot about LMFAO – the foremost icons of party rocking – a…

This episode features John Norris, a veteran music journalist who has written for a wide range of publications but is best known for his work at MTV News for two decades. In this conversation we talk about the trajectory of MTV News through his tenure there, discuss recent documentaries about Britney Spears and 6ix9ine, and get into issues of ageis…

This episode features AV Club writer Tatiana Tenreyro. We talk about all the songs on a playlist of indie songs from 2011 that she made, including artists such as M83, Fleet Foxes, Florence and the Machine, Girls, The Black Keys, The Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey, Vivian Girls, Cold War Kids, Panda Bear, and The Horrors. A stroll down indie memory l…

This episode features Trevor Beaulieu of the podcast Champagne Sharks. This is pretty much a freeform conversation that gets into a lot of different topics – media, comics, blogging, aging with music, record stores, SPIN magazine in the ‘90s, how bad Gen X can be about wokeness, forgettable 2000s rock bands, Eminem's music aging badly, etc. FYI, th…

This episode features the journalist Abraham Riesman, author of the new Stan Lee biography True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee. We spend a lot of the full episode talking about the book and his history with Marvel Comics, but in this (rather generous) preview segment we talk about Stephen Malkmus, Beck, Kiki & Herb, and how coming out as b…

This episode features Norman Brannon, who is best known as the guitarist for Texas Is The Reason and New End Original, but has also had careers as a writer, educator, TV presenter, and real estate agent. A lot of this episode is about following a muse through different stages of artistic pursuits and careers, the way being in a successful band when…