In 1995, a fervent and wry rapper (Sean Daley, aka Slug) and a dexterous deejay (Anthony Davis; Ant for short) helped co-found a platform to help put Midwest -- and more precisely, Minnesotan -- hip-hop on the map. Three decades later, Rhymesayers Entertainment is one of the most popular and influential modern rap labels in existence, releasing seminal LP's by MF Doom, Freeway, Aesop Rock, Brother Ali, and Atmosphere: Slug and Ant's infectious repartee that helped define the Rhymesayers aesthetic from the jump: While Daley puts the listener in a metaphorical chokehold -- thanks to a volatile delivery of vulnerable self-reflection -- Davis' textured musical milieu allows plenty of room for revelry within a hybrid of soul, gospel and rap's golden age. On this week's episode, the pair ponder how record shopping has actively made their lives better, why racially integrated album covers usually lead to great music, and when their first-ever appearance on vinyl became a time capsule of their first-ever collaboration. Atmosphere will commemorate the 20th anniversary of their landmark release You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having by kicking off their aptly-titled Imagine The Fun tour in January. Tickets, social media and pre-orders for Ant's third volume of his Collection of Sounds series (dropping next month) are all available at atmospheresucks.com. 

Bruce Springsteen once said that the secret to good songwriting was striking a balance between the personal and the universal: Get specific with people and locations first before shading in the rest with the kinds of generalities that make your listener relate, and hopefully, feel something. Craig Finn -- leader of the rough-and-ready, Grammy-nominated outfit The Hold Steady -- has subscribed to this philosophy in spades, garnering a cult-like fandom over 20+ years. On critically-acclaimed albums like Separation Sunday and Boys & Girls In America, the band has wheeled-and-dealed jaw-dropping tales of overdoses, arrests, confessional debauchery, and post-party pathos on par with any binge-worthy crime drama. Yet, despite those circumstances, the most fervent fans of The Hold Steady often connect most with the undying optimism that lies within Finn's brash and bewildered characters -- many of which show up on multiple tracks. Recorded in front of a live audience at Pinwheel Records in Chicago, Craig spotlights a lyrical trick he learned from Paul Simon, the babysitter who schooled him on Led Zeppelin, and the intriguing plot of his next solo album, due in spring.

Visit craigfinn.net and theholdsteady.net for news, social media, tour dates and more. You can also subscribe to That's How I Remember It -- where Craig examines the connections between art and memory -- wherever you listen to podcasts.

Live sound engineer: Manny Medina

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 and uncle, further deepening his love of vinyl. On this episode, John chats about sobriety, Superdrag's future, and nostalgia's double-edged sword. His latest solo outing titled Jinx is now available digitally, on CD and wax via lostinohio.com. Follow @johndavisbrandmusic and @superdragofficial on Instagram for updates.

Full details on our upcoming live episode at Pinwheel Records in Chicago, with guest Craig Finn! Free tickets available here.

This is an encore presentation of a previous episode, originally airing in January 2022.

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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 addressing the horrors of chattel slavery and the Brown Paper Bag Test, making for an unforgettable statement that channels both Odetta and Public Enemy. On today’s episode, Amythyst discusses “Black Myself” in detail, as well as growing up with an audiophile father, being intrigued as a kid by a particular Santana album cover, and how an a cappella Tori Amos song inspired her to share her most personal struggles. Visit amythystkiah.com for tour dates, social media and more.

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, Cheap Trick, Roy Orbison and the Ramones, while feeling wholly original. It’s now been three decades since Born To Quit, the band’s heroic half-hour featuring “Need You Around” and “Rubella,” put them on the map. And although an LP reissue dropped earlier this year (without the band’s consent or knowledge), Josh and Mike decided that the Popes needed their own “Taylor’s Version” of sorts, in order to take these songs back into their possession — even in the most modest of terms. So before a minimal audience in a small, central Illinois studio, the band chose to cut Born To Quit live, front to back, and a vinyl version comes out this week to put a stamp on the occasion. During this episode, Josh and Mike speak to their longevity as a unit, what we can expect from their brand new album this spring, and what it meant to control Born To Quit’s legacy a bit, with this new approach. We also dive into Mike’s tenure in Alkaline Trio, and Josh’s solo performances pressed to wax during the 2020 lockdown. Visit anxiousandangry.com to pre-order the Born To Quit Live Session, and hit up smokingpopesmusic.com for tour dates, social media and more.

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 learning who to trust; at the moment, currently on tour playing the album in full, the pair look at the release as a "coming-of-age" album, one that inspired and launched thousands of bands itself through its heroic melodies and relatable points of view. Recorded backstage at the legendary Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Jim and Rob discuss the two-sided coin of nostalgia, what inspires them about each other, and why maple syrup isn’t always a positive smell. The band's 2LP Something to Write Home About reissue, complete with demos and previously unheard material, is available now via digital platforms, and physically on September 20th. Tour dates and more can be found at thegetupkids.com.

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, through genuinely hopeful takes on the human condition like "Inside of Love" or "See These Bones." Today, Matthew talks about color coding his record collection, why double-tracking vocals feels like an act of fiction, the meticulous nature of Nada Surf's album covers, and connecting the dots between Bach and Blonde Redhead. Their new album Moon Mirror -- the group's first for Nashville label New West -- drops September 13th. More details are available at nadasurf.com.