To call Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster “Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster,” while true, is a bit limiting. He also keeps time full-time (and tours constantly) with Bob Mould and the Mountain Goats, contributes hilarity to The Best Show On WFMU With Tom Scharpling and maintains one of the most reliably funny Twitter feeds. Superchunk is on the road supporting its 10th LP, I Hate Music (Merge); while traveling from gigs to home and to more gigs, Wurster filled some rare empty space in his hectic schedule by guest editing magnetmagazine.com this week. Read our brand-new Q&A with him.
Wurster: Back in ye olde ’90s, when Superchunk was touring for weeks on end, we’d get so burned out on music that we’d listen to cassettes of prank phone calls, recording studio arguments and other audio weirdness. These tapes would get passed around from band to band, and before you knew it, some of them them started to make their way into mainstream culture (don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten the Jerky Boys movie). Maybe we’ve outgrown prank culture or maybe it just isn’t as prevalent, but these days we listen to podcasts to help pass our time in planes, vans and automobiles. To go along with Jen Kirkman’s podcast I posted about earlier this week, here are a few of my other favorites.
Julie Klausner’s world is a wondrous place. And if you’d like a peek inside that world look no further than How Was Your Week? Klausner always has interesting guests on her show (David Sedaris, Jim Gaffigan, Fran Drescher and Aimee Mann have all made appearances), but the most entertaining and insightful moments come when she riffs on the topics that are closest to her heart: TV, movies, musicals, pop culture, divas and her beloved cats. Klausner is no stranger to self-work, and her ruminations on what is and isn’t working in her life are always illuminating.
I love The Todd Barry Podcast because it finds Barry, whom we usually only get to experience as a solo stand-up comedian (he’s one of the very best in the business), in the role of interviewer. You might assume that Barry’s trademark dry, low-energy style might not lend itself to this kind of situation, but it does, and it’s what ultimately sets TTBP apart from the rest of the “comedians talking to comedians” podcasts. If you’re at all curious about what it’s like to be a working comedian, this is the place for you. Each episode finds Barry discussing the highs and lows of the business and swapping war stories with contemporaries like Judah Friedlander, Nikki Glaser, Andy Kindler and Colin Quinn.
There are a lot of music podcasts out there, but Low Times is my favorite. And I’m not just saying that because it’s co-hosted by my longtime comedy partner, Tom Scharpling. Maggie Serota and Daniel Ralston are Tom’s partners in Low Times, and over the last few years they’ve conducted fascinating interviews with a wide array of subjects, including New Order’s Peter Hook, Mike Nesmith, the Thermals, Richard Marx, Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, G.E. Smith and “Weird Al” Yankovic. Some of the best and goofiest Low Times moments come during roundtable discussion episodes where topics like “The Worst Lyrics Of All Time” and “The Most ’90s Song Of The ’90s” are hotly debated.
Jake Fogelnest has had a long and storied career in the entertainment business. He got his start at the age of 14 as host of the mid-’90s MTV talk show Squirt TV before landing writing gigs with VH1, Comedy Central and his current job as a host on Sirius XMU. But The Fogelnest Files is where we get Jake at his funniest and most outrageous. Fogelnest puts a unique spin on the usual host/guest routine by doing deep research on his guests and then playing YouTube videos he’s dug up specifically for them to comment on. I was on TFF recently, and Jake blindsided me with this blast from my Philadelphia past that I’d somehow blocked from my memory and am still not quite over.
