Caropop

Mark Caro
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  • MUSICA: INTERVISTE

There may be nothing more inspiring and entertaining than relaxed, candid conversations among creative people. Mark Caro, a relentlessly curious journalist and on-stage interviewer, loves digging into the creative process with artists and drawing out surprising stories that illuminate the work that has become part of our lives. The Caropopcast is for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the music, movies, food and culture that they love.

  1. Len Kasper

    4 GG FA

    Len Kasper

    Len Kasper is starting his sixth season as the Chicago White Sox’s radio play-by-play announcer after 16 years as the Cubs’ TV play-by-play guy, but he’s got another passion: playing bass and writing songs for his band Sonic45. This Chicago all-star five-piece, which features recent Caropop guest Dag Juhlin on guitar, made its debut performance after my 2019 “Talking in Space” conversation with Kasper. Since then, the band, which has had a name change that he explains, has released two albums: Space and Time (2021) and SuperSonic (2024). The sound is muscular and swirling while Kasper’s lyrics are vulnerable and revealing. Kasper is open here as well as he discusses whether he dreamt more of being a baseball announcer, player or musician; how the Cubs’ “Hot Stove Cool Music” charity concerts fueled his music career; whether he considered singing in Sonic45; and whether it was coincidental that he took the White Sox radio job weeks after Theo Epstein left the Cubs. (Photo by Katrina Vlasich)

    1 h 9 min
  2. Christine Sneed

    5 MAR

    Christine Sneed

    Any author would dream of the kind of acclaim and attention that Christine Sneed has received, including a front-page Sunday New York Times Book Review rave of her 2013 novel Little Known Facts. The accolades continued for subsequent novels and short-story collections, yet getting her work published has become harder than ever. Sneed launched a Substack called Bookish that offers tips, reflections, interviews, agent lists and more to fellow writers and interested readers. Here she addresses: How much energy does she spend writing vs. trying to get her work out into the world? Does a writer need a so-called platform? Why can't more agents and editors respond to writers in a timely manner? How much of a problem is the shuttering of so many book sections? Sneed and I often swap tales of publishing misadventures, and now you can enjoy her hard-earned wisdom as well. (Photo by Adam Tinkham)

    1 h 17 min
  3. Graham Parker (Howlin' Wind)

    26 FEB

    Graham Parker (Howlin' Wind)

    Musicians are said to have a lifetime to create their first album and six months to make the follow-up. That was literally the case with Graham Parker, whose landmark debut album, Howlin’ Wind, came out in April 1976, followed that October by the acclaimed Heat Treatment. Parker, the subject of Jay Nachman’s excellent new book Graham Parker’s Howlin’ Wind, tells his fascinating origin story here. He worked in factories and at a gas station, tried on almost every ‘60s/’70s musical style and wrote, wrote and wrote. How many songs had he written before he came up with one that made the cut for Howlin’ Wind? How did he get connected to his ace backing band, the Rumour, and did he start writing with them in mind? The still-active, feisty Parker presents a vivid portrait of the artist as a young man--and conveys his current feelings about how the system is rigged against musicians trying to make a living. (Photo by Steve Goulding)

    1 h 10 min
  4. Michael Blair

    19 FEB

    Michael Blair

    Michael Blair had much training in percussion, including a degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, by the time he pulled out the marimba, congas, drums and other instruments for Tom Waits’ landmark 1985 album Rain Dogs. As was the case with recent Caropop guest Mark Ribot, Rain Dogs propelled Blair to more work with Waits (including the album and Steppenwolf Theatre performances of Franks Wild Years) and projects with Elvis Costello and producers T Bone Burnett and Hal Willner. That’s Blair delivering the “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” riff on marimba on Costello’s cover of the song and playing a wild array of percussion instruments on Costello’s Spike. Blair tells how he landed the drumming gig on Lou Reed’s Magic and Loss and the unusual way that album's drums were recorded. He also relates how he wound up on the Replacements’ All Shook Down and why he has lived in Stockholm, Sweden, for many years. (Photo by Cato Lein.)

    1 h 32 min
  5. Victor Krummenacher 2026

    12 FEB

    Victor Krummenacher 2026

    I saw bassist Victor Krummenacher, one of my favorite music people, perform twice within three weeks last fall: with Camper Van Beethoven to end perhaps their last-ever tour in Washington, D.C.; and with the Third Mind, the improvisatory band also featuring Dave Alvin, in Milwaukee. Both shows were fantastic. Now Krummenacher has a new album, the cinematic Block Out the Sun, and is reflecting on the inevitable artistic collision between one’s personal life and what’s happening in the outside world. He also discusses an upcoming album collaboration between most of the Third Mind and former Fairport Convention singer (and Caropop guest) Iain Matthews; the recently announced Record Store Day release of Camper Van Beethoven’s version of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk; Krummenacher’s vision of a possible Camper future; and that David Lowery song that quotes something hostile that Krummenacher allegedly said to the Camper frontman when the band was first breaking up. (Photo by Jesse Sykes.)

    1 h 22 min
  6. Dag Juhlin

    5 FEB

    Dag Juhlin

    I first saw and interviewed Dag Juhlin more than 30 years ago when he was singing, writing and playing guitar with the power-pop trio the Slugs. He’s had many musical lives since then, including playing in Poi Dog Pondering’s expansive Chicago lineup, performing deep-cut covers in Expo’76 and Courtesy Patrol, supporting Len Kasper’s songwriting in Sonic45 and singing and writing songs with his latest trio, Sunshine Boys. He’s also about to hit the road with Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and Friends to mark the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant. He talks about all that here, including the striking popularity of the R.E.M. project, whether it’s a tribute band or something else, and how that amazing photo of Juhlin with Michael Stipe came to be. He also tells the Sunshine Boys origin story and explains how that band “unquit the music business.” (Photo by David Kindler.)

    1 h 12 min
  7. Marc Ribot

    29 GEN

    Marc Ribot

    I first noticed Marc Ribot’s slinky, spiky guitar playing as “Jockey Full of Bourbon,” from Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs, slithered over the opening of Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law. Rain Dogs was a breakthrough for Ribot, who previously had played in Brother Jack McDuff’s soul-jazz band, backed Wilson Pickett and Solomon Burke, and been a member of the Lounge Lizards. More Waits collaborations followed, as did work with Elvis Costello, Sam Phillips, McCoy Tyner, Yoko Ono, Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, Elton John and Leon Russell, and many others. Here Ribot reflects on his robust studio-musician and solo career; his love of Latin American music; the creative leeway that Waits, Costello and others gave him; the impact of producers such as T Bone Burnett and Hal Willner; his decision to sing lead for the first time on his long-gestating 2025 album, Map of a Blue City; and his fight for indie musicians’ rights with the Music Workers Alliance. (Photo by Eric van den Brulle.)

    1 h 5 min
  8. Kevin Gray 2026

    22 GEN

    Kevin Gray 2026

    In our annual check-in with renowned mastering engineer Kevin Gray, he reflects on a very busy 2025 that included his Rhino High Fidelity versions of Fleetwood Mac and Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks’ long-out-of-print Buckingham Nicks. How did Gray and fellow mastering engineer Chris Bellman feel about Rhino releasing separate versions of Buckingham Nicks mastered by each of them? Gray also discusses the Rhino High Fidelity John Coltrane: 1960-1964 Mono box, for which he revisited some albums he’d previously mastered in stereo. Gray's RHF version of T. Rex’s Electric Warrior followed the label’s reel-to-reel tape release of that album—which should sound better? Of course, we had to address the hullabaloo sparked by Gray’s comments on Caropop a year ago criticizing the One Step pressing process. Was he surprised? Does he feel vindicated? Other topics covered: Gray’s Blue Note Tone Poet work with producer Joe Harley; the jazz albums Gray is recording and releasing on his Cohearent Records label. What’s in store for 2026?

    51 min
Elenco completo (224)

Descrizione

There may be nothing more inspiring and entertaining than relaxed, candid conversations among creative people. Mark Caro, a relentlessly curious journalist and on-stage interviewer, loves digging into the creative process with artists and drawing out surprising stories that illuminate the work that has become part of our lives. The Caropopcast is for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the music, movies, food and culture that they love.

Informazioni

  • Creatore
    Mark Caro
  • Anni di attività
    2021 - 2026
  • Puntate
    224
  • Classificazione
    Contenuti adatti a tutti
  • Copyright
    © Mark Caro 2021
  • Sito web del podcast
    Caropop

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