Episode 207: Superdrag's John Davis
Vinyl Emergency
Between his father's banjo picking and his mother's love of Motown, Superdrag's John Davis eventually began writing tunes that would channel Stax's classic soul and Big Star-adjacent power-pop through the blurred guitar wall of My Bloody Valentine -- an eventual blueprint for the band's cult classic debut album Regretfully Yours in 1996. But between grueling tours and generous MTV airplay for the infectious "Sucked Out," John would discover a second home in local Knoxville, Tennessee music shop Lost & Found Records, where he says owners Mike and Maria Armstrong became like a surrogate aunt...
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Episode 206: DC Glenn of Tag Team ("Whoomp! There It Is")
Vinyl Emergency
On a random night in August 1992, while DJ'ing at an Atlanta strip club, Cecil Glenn pops in a tape he and his musical counterpart Steve Gibson have been working on. Influenced by the pulsing Miami Bass scene, it's also layered with fast-paced Georgia swagger and an infectious call-and-response chorus. Immediately, patrons rush Cecil's audio booth to find out who made this track, and how they can get a copy. Record labels, MTV hosts and more also came calling, leading to "Whoomp! (There It Is)" quickly going platinum, a mere six weeks after he'd quit that same DJ gig, to focus on original...
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SECOND SPIN: Amythyst Kiah (January 2022)
Vinyl Emergency
This is an encore presentation of a previous episode, originally airing in January 2022. --- Championed by some today’s biggest names on the fringes of country music, singer/songwriter Amythyst Kiah released her breakthrough album Wary + Strange in 2021 to rave reviews. Upon its release, Pitchfork dubbed the record “an intensely personal document (that) examines the realities of being a Southern Black LGBTQ+ woman in songs both defiant and vulnerable.” One of those tracks in particular, the Grammy-nominated “Black Myself,” matches a hypnotic groove and gritty distortion with lyrics...
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Episode 205: Smoking Popes
Vinyl Emergency
It’s not out of bounds to say that the Smoking Popes began as a bit of a joke. Vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Josh Caterer deems the earliest incarnation of the band as “a Spinal Tap version of hardcore punk,” choosing song titles first and how those songs would actually go later. But after finding a propulsive drummer in a teenage Mike Felumlee, the quartet began showing true heart around 1993: no longer just goofing off in the garage, Caterer was penning some of the punchiest, most direct odes to lost love on the college radio dial, emphasizing all the best parts of the Smiths,...
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Episode 204: The Get Up Kids' Rob Pope & Jim Suptic
Vinyl Emergency
Today's guests are more than just bandmates. Friends since the first grade -- with matching tattoos to boot -- being founding members of the influential Kansas collective The Get Up Kids has taken Rob Pope and Jim Suptic (along with Matt Pryor and Rob's brother Ryan) to seemingly every corner of the world since their 1995 formation. This year marks the 25th anniversary of their breakthrough sophomore LP Something to Write Home About — an album layered in lovelorn distance and declarations of proving oneself. Back then, Jim and Rob say that getting the album out was a frustrating practice in...
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Episode 203: Matthew Caws of Nada Surf
Vinyl Emergency
Not everyone can say that both their first and last jobs were behind the counter of a record store. But that's how things ended up for Matthew Caws, before his beloved power-pop act Nada Surf became his main gig in the mid-2000's. Shifting time between New York City and Paris growing up, he points to an eclectic list of influences (classical, disco and late 70's NYC punk) that laid the groundwork for who he'd become as a musician and songwriter. Though their sneering, tongue-in-cheek alt-rock hit "Popular" became an MTV staple throughout 1996, the band has made a deeper impact as they've aged,...
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Episode 202: Camera Obscura's Tracyanne Campbell
Vinyl Emergency
A love affair with records has fueled Tracyanne Campbell for as long as she can remember: Before anyone else woke up in the morning as a kid, she'd already be spinning ELO; thanks to her grandmother, she became a devout listener of American country music and still has a profound memory of first hearing Tammy Wynette's groundbreaking "Stand By Your Man"; her mother even bought her a new 45 RPM single every weekend growing up -- spanning everything from Roxy Music to The Osmonds -- keeping her fervent curiosity alive. Fast forward to the mid-90's, and Tracyanne takes this bag of influences...
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Episode 201: John Moreland
Vinyl Emergency
Early in his career, John Moreland says he existed in a state of what he dubs "under-being": Living in perpetual humility to a fault, believing he wasn't deserving of appreciation for his art, let alone basic kindness. But in 2024, whether being championed by his Grammy-winning peers, or hailed by GQ as "the new face of folk rock,” he's finding being one of the most talked-about singer/songwriters today a little easier to take. And the last 12 months alone have given his fans multiple reasons to celebrate: On top of a raw, live-to-acetate recording at Nashville's Third Man Records and a...
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Episode 200: Fran Healy of Travis
Vinyl Emergency
“Our old manager was always saying to me, ‘Artwork’s not really that important. No one cares.’ That’s why he’s our old manager.” That bit from this week’s 200th episode, with Travis' Fran Healy, speaks to his genuine reverence for how music is presented. And though he's the voice and songwriter behind such anthemic rave-ups as "All I Wanna Do Is Rock" and "Selfish Jean," it's arguably the somber side of the foursome (with hits like "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?" and "Driftwood") that put them on the map globally, and eventually led to them going 14x Platinum in the UK. The...
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SECOND SPIN: Vance Powell (Engineer for Jack White, Chris Stapleton; September 2020)
Vinyl Emergency
This is an encore presentation of a previous episode, originally airing in September 2020. 4x Grammy-winning producer, engineer and mixer Vance Powell has worked with a wide range of artists and bands including Chris Stapleton, Buddy Guy and Phish. For vinyl collectors, he's arguably most known for being a consistent studio go-to for Jack White, not only being involved with proper studio releases from Jack and his various projects (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs) but Vance is behind the boards of most every Live At Third Man Records LP, where bands record short sets in front of a couple...
info_outlineNorth Carolina-based label Merge Records, inarguably one of America's most influential and prolific purveyors of indie-rock, is on the cusp of turning 35 -- a landmark that co-founders Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan likely couldn't fathom when they started the label in 1989. Then, Merge was simply a DIY avenue to release tunes by their scrappy quartet Superchunk. But along the way, as the band's jangly but caffeinated power-pop caught on with an international audience, Merge evolved from a modest method of putting out music by Mac and Laura's friends into the beloved home of cult acts like Neutral Milk Hotel, Spoon, The Magnetic Fields and countless others, eventually becoming the first indie label to garner an Album of the Year Grammy, for Arcade Fire's 'The Suburbs' in 2011. On this week's show, Mac reflects on Merge's early years, the label's new vinyl-centric web series Digging For Something, as well as Superchunk's latest compilation of singles, demos and other oddities dropping this week, titled 'Misfits & Mistakes.' Visit mergerecords.com to shop for your favorite releases, and follow @macsuperchunk or @mergerecords on Instagram.