Caropop

Rachel Lichtman grew up listening to 1970s AM radio and watching local TV—a world of soothing music, tacky ads, eye-grabbing graphics and reruns galore. A keen-eyed and -eared graphic artist, comedian and filmmaker, Lichtman evokes the humor and beauty of that era in Programme 4, her would-be-station-turned-film she is touring alongside live musical/comedy performances. Based in fictional Golden Sands, Programme 4 presents opening credit sequences for TV shows that should have been (The William Joel Show, A Man Named Brady, Brooker) plus ads, short films and killer jokes revolving around harpsichords, the Rhodes electric piano and steamy brown coffee. Aimee Mann, Ted Leo and Dag Juhlin are among an all-star cast that has contributed to the Easy AM 66 (“Your Beautiful Music Station”) playlists and performs at the variety shows. Where did Lichtman’s love for this vibe and aesthetic come from? How did she conjure up the vision and develop the skills to pull off this unique project?

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.)

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.)

Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, accomplished producers and performers on their own, came together to produce one of rock’s greatest debut albums, R.E.M.’s Murmur. That 1983 classic plus the preceding, Easter-produced EP, Chronic Town, have gotten the all-analog, One Step treatment in a numbered, limited-edition vinyl release from Interscope-Capitol’s Definitive Sound Series. We reunited Easter and Dixon to discuss the making of Murmur plus the follow-up they produced, Reckoning. What did they each bring to the process? Why does one of them consider Murmur to be the Dark Side of the Moon of the New Wave era? What had changed by the time they recorded Reckoning? Easter also talks about working again with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills on the latest Baseball Project album, and Easter and Dixon offer details about Murmur that even this longtime R.E.M. fanatic found revelatory. (You’ll never hear “Radio Free Europe” or “Perfect Circle” in the same way.)