Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 10h

Jen Cloher calls her self-titled album her most honest — a record about love, distance, and the politics that sneak into both.

“It’s not a breakup album,” she says. “It’s about being in it.”

www.lpm.org/music/2017-1...

Jen Cloher: “It’s a funny time to be on this planet"

Jen Cloher on Honesty, Home, and How the Dream Fades

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 10h

After being dropped from his label, Scotty McCreery bet his career on “Five More Minutes.” It hit No. 1—without a label—and everything changed. Then he followed with The Soundcheck Sessions, reflecting on love, second chances, and the freedom of writing his own story.

www.lpm.org/music/2020-0...

Scotty McCreery: "People had put me on this pedestal"

Scotty McCreery on Reinvention, Real Love, and the Long Road Back

www.lpm.org

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Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 10h

“We’re not the young underdogs anymore. We’re the ones carrying the torch.”

State Champs' Derek DiScanio on Kings of the New Age, confidence, and finally debunking that damn “Stitches” cover.

www.lpm.org/music/2022-0...

State Champs' Derek Discanio: “We’re not the young, exciting underband anymore”

State Champs’ Derek DiScanio on Confidence, Covers, and Carrying the Pop-Punk Torch

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 10h

Giles Martin on remixing Sgt. Pepper: “The Beatles weren’t old men making nostalgic music—they were in their twenties. I want people to hear that youth again.”

www.lpm.org/music/2017-0...

Giles Martin: “You could argue that Sgt. Pepper is the greatest album of all time”

Giles Martin on Sgt. Pepper, Preserving the Beatles’ Magic, and Hearing the World for His Father

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 10h

“We’re fleas on the back of a dog named Earth,” says Les Claypool. Sean Lennon adds, “We’re having a party while the world burns.”

www.lpm.org/music/2019-0...

Les Claypool & Sean Lennon: "Sometimes you stand on the edge of disaster just to see what it feels like”

Les Claypool & Sean Lennon on South of Reality, Cosmic Chaos, and Partying While the World Burns

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 14h

Tonight’s guest list: Tommy Stinson of The Replacements, Baroness’ John Dyer Baizley, and Harry Potter director David Yates.

Add 4 hours of new music, classic alt, and whatever else sneaks in.

6p ET on WFPK

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Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 14h

Wallows say Model is their most confident record yet — and they still cut some of their best songs.

We talked boy band melodies, B-side magic, and recording fast with John Congleton.

www.lpm.org/music/2024-0...

Wallows: "We’re in a more assured place, personally and as a band"

Wallows on Model, the Art of the B-Side, and How Their Saddest Song Was Inspired by a Boy Band

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 1d

Daryl J. Johnson once chased Miley Cyrus down the street naked on Punk’d. So when Jake Johnson asked him to do a toilet scene in Self Reliance, he said, “That’s nothing.”

www.lpm.org/music/2024-0...

Daryl J Johnson: "I ran down a street naked chasing Miley Cyrus"

Daryl J. Johnson on Self Reliance, Toilet Humor, and Why He’ll Never Trust Andy Samberg in a Limo

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 1d

“Hip-hop killed song structure in the best way,” says Patrick Watson. On Waves, he’s letting go of form, metaphor, and even pain itself—channeling Leonard Cohen, Frank Ocean, and a flooded street in Beijing into one of his most intimate records.

www.lpm.org/music/2020-0...

Patrick Watson: “I don’t want to write something that makes people feel worse"

Patrick Watson on Waves, Leonard Cohen, and the Music That Makes the Body Buzz

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 1d

CJ Ramone says he’s “a pirate who can pull into any port and feel at home,” but California’s been good for the former Marine and one of the last Ramones standing.

We talked about The Holy Spell, Justin Timberlake’s surprising fandom, and maybe retiring to a boat.

www.lpm.org/music/2019-0...

CJ Ramone: “The Ramones influenced more groups than any band after the Beatles”

CJ Ramone on California Dreams, Lost Friends, and Punk Retirement

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 1d

Noelle Scaggs moved to Nashville, hit creative burnout, and still helped Fitz and the Tantrums write the most infectious track of their career. “We were asking ourselves, is this really us?” she says of “HandClap.” It was, and then some.

www.lpm.org/music/2017-0...

Fitz & the Tantrums' Noelle Scaggs: “We got burned out and needed real life stuff"

Fitz & the Tantrums' Noelle Scaggs on Moving to Nashville, Creative Growing Pains, and the Birth of “HandClap”

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 1d

After a decade in the Harry Potter world, director David Yates dives into Big Pharma’s dark side with Pain Hustlers. Or as producer Lawrence Grey puts it: “We went from Hogwarts to hot tubs full of pharma reps.”

www.lpm.org/music/2023-1...

David Yates: “We went from Hogwarts to hot tubs full of pharma reps"

David Yates and Lawrence Grey on Pain Hustlers, Emily Blunt’s Moral Whirlwind, and Finding Truth in the Greed

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 2d

OK Go's Damian Kulash wrote a breakup album before the breakup happened — and only realized it after his wife walked out.

“Turns out I was trying to tell myself something.”

www.lpm.org/music/2014-1...

OK Go’s Damian Kulash: “The distinction between songwriting and making a video is arbitrary”

OK Go’s Damian Kulash on Hungry Ghosts, Viral Afterlife, and Writing a Breakup Album Before the Breakup

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 2d

Neil Halstead sent Slowdive 40 electronic sketches before they started everything is alive. “We were scared of the pop version,” he says of their hit “Kisses.”

Also: the band still records in the same studio they used in the 90s. Same leather sofa and everything.

www.lpm.org/music/2024-0...

Slowdive's Neil Halstead: “We’ve always been an overly curated band"

Slowdive’s Neil Halstead on Shoegaze Moods, 60s Pop, & Old Studio Couches

www.lpm.org

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Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 2d

CHVRCHES’ Screen Violence started as a horror concept — and then became real.

“Some stuff went wrong inside my aquarium,” Lauren Mayberry says. “So I wrote my way out.”

www.lpm.org/music/2021-1...

Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry: "The dark forces have blessed us"

Lauren Mayberry on Horror, Hope, and Haunting Her Own Ghosts

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 2d

Nathaniel Rateliff calls And It’s Still Alright “kind of a divorce record wrapped in a death record,” but it’s also about finding hope.

“I acknowledge the darkness, but I want there to be more than that.”

www.lpm.org/music/2020-0...

Nathaniel Rateliff: "There’s beauty in the struggle"

Nathaniel Rateliff on Divorce, Death, and the Unexpected Hope Behind And It’s Still Alright

www.lpm.org

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Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 2d

Will Butler wrote Generations while yelling “What do I do?!” into the void — and turned it into a dance party.

“It’s all thorny. I’m just trying to show up.”

www.lpm.org/music/2020-1...

Arcade Fire's Will Butler: "I think every songwriter makes a persona"

Will Butler on Generations, American Guilt, and the Punk Theater of Not Knowing Anything at All

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 2d

Jamila Woods on Legacy! Legacy!: “Each track is a self-portrait through someone else’s name.”

We talked poetry, Afrofuturism, and why she included a bibliography in the liner notes.

www.lpm.org/music/2019-1...

Jamila Woods: “For Black people, just imagining ourselves in the future is revolutionary”

Jamila Woods on Legacy! Legacy!, Afrofuturism, and Writing Self-Portraits Through Her Heroes

www.lpm.org

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Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 2d

Tonight I’m hanging with DEVO, Slowdive, and Charles Dance — so expect synths, shoegaze, and a bit of menace.

Plus 4 hours of classic & new alternative, Americana, and whatever else gets thrown in.

6p ET on WFPK

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 2d

Well that's almost my face. But not quite. 😂

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Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 3d

Malia Kreiling missed Tom Jones on set thanks to a COVID scare. “I’m still upset.”

Also: she wore kintsugi to the Mammals premiere and calls her character “fearless, unorthodox, and maybe the hero.”

www.lpm.org/music/2023-0...

Melia Kreiling: “We’re all fractured, but we don’t have to be ugly when we’re broken"

Malia Kreiling on Mammals, Relationship Morality, and the Beauty of Human Brokenness

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 3d

Matthew Sweet says Tomorrow’s Daughter isn’t leftovers — it’s “a real record.”

Also: he threw a party for the Can’t Hardly Wait cast.

www.lpm.org/music/2017-0...

Matthew Sweet: “I think I was reacting to how fast Girlfriend had become successful"

Matthew Sweet on Tomorrow’s Daughter, Monster Love Songs, and the Resurrection of His Back Pages

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 3d

Kevin Cronin on REO’s wild ride: “We weren’t perfect — just trying to figure it out in real time. In 50 years, you screw up, you learn, you keep rolling with the changes.”

www.lpm.org/music/2020-0...

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Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 3d

Tommy Stinson on The Replacements’ Tim reissue:

“There’s a reason some of that stuff stayed in the vault… but fans want the full story.”

www.lpm.org/music/2023-1...

The Replacements' Tommy Stinson: “Our best work had that loose vibe.”

Tommy Stinson on The Replacements’ Tim, Playing with X’s John Doe, and Lorde’s Cover of “Swingin Party”

www.lpm.org

Kyle Meredith @kylemeredith.lpm.org · 3d

Lindsey Buckingham, Wallows’ Dylan Minnette, and Neil deGrasse Tyson join me tonight — so basically rock, pop, and the cosmos all in one show.

6p ET on WFPK