Matt Berninger (The National)

This November, I'm going out on tour with my friend Patterson Hood. We're calling it the Devil in the Details tour, and we're gonna be appearing on the same stage at the same time playing our songs with one auxiliary musician, a guy named Ben Hackett. This tour is gonna be magical, and I'm already excited about it. In fact, I'm so excited about it that I decided to dig into the vaults and re-air the first-ever episode of That's How I Remember It, which featured a conversation between myself and, you guessed it, Patterson Hood. So if you can, I hope you'll come hang out in one of these places: Seattle, Portland, Bend, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Dallas, and Austin. The devil's in the details indeed. Get more details of the dates at craigfinn.net. This episode originally ran on June 8, 2022. For the first episode of That’s How I Remember It, I spoke to Patterson Hood, one of my all-time favorite songwriters. Patterson’s work with the Drive By Truckers has examined life in the Southern USA and beyond, lyrically tearing down old monuments while constructing new ones to more worthy recipients. We talked about turning memories into mythology, honoring deceased friends, and how his classic song "18 Wheels of Love" might be built on a shaky foundation. We also reminisce a bit on the Drive By Truckers/The Hold Steady “Rock and Roll Means Well” Tour from 2008. Huge thanks to Patterson for being my first guest. I’ll be talking to Brian Koppelman, Fred Armisen, and other great guests in weeks to come, so please subscribe and keep listening to That’s How I Remember It.

Conor Oberst is my guest on this episode of That’s How I Remember It. I’m very excited about that because I’m a huge fan. I talked to the BRIGHT EYES songwriter about his excellent last record Five Dice, All Threes as well as Don McLean’s "American Pie," La Bamba the movie, 120 Minutes, Billy Joel, signing to Grass Records as a high school student, his creative relationship with Alex Orange Drink, Aksarben and so much more. I’d been really looking forward to this conversation, and Conor was predictably great. Listen and subscribe!

Matt Berninger from The National is my guest on this episode of That’s How I Remember It. Matt checked in from a tour bus at the End of the Road festival in the UK and we talked about his great solo record Get Sunk, lyric monitors, Rizzo from Grease, roller skating, hotel bars, reading novels to plot your future, memory as fantasy and collage, writing about childhood, early 2000s NYC, and Nabokov cocktails. He also shared a traumatic Valentine’s Day story. So happy to have Matt on the show, it was a really fun conversation. Listen and subscribe!

Dan Wriggins from the band Friendship is my guest on this episode of That’s How I Remember It. I’ve been a big fan of Dan’s band and his writing for the last few years, and I think I’ve listened to the new Friendship record Caveman Wakes Up more than anything else this year. We talked about this great record as well as basement shows, Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War,” Dave Eggers movies, writing in Asheville, recommending songs to friends, landscaping work in the Philly suburbs, and song titles as Gary Larson cartoon captions. Great episode, check it out and please subscribe.

Margaret Cho is my guest on this episode of That’s How I Remember It. Margaret is, of course, a comedy legend, but she’s so much more - a writer, an actor, a singer/songwriter, etc. I met her over a decade ago at a tribute to Bob Mould out in LA, and I was thrilled that we reconnected on this episode. We talked about Lucky Gift, her record from last year, as well as Benzodiazepines, perfume memories, ditto machines, going to see the GoGos on the Vacation tour, her early act, Lilith Fair, pub rock, and so much more. Really a fantastic talk, Margaret is truly a joy to speak with and I’m so glad she spent the time. Listen and subscribe.

Nick Carpenter makes music as Medium Build and he is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It. In 2024, he released a great record called Country, and we talked about that as well as memorizing lyrics, Crocs, “Renegade” by Styx, Alaska, being obsessed by geography, dreaming about Marc Maron, Lou Vega’s “Mambo No. 5,” and missed connection ads being like songs. I had a great time talking to Nick, he’s funny and insightful and I was thrilled to meet him in person a few weeks later when we both opened for Tyler Childress. Huge thanks to him for joining me. Check it out, listen and subscribe.

Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker, the principal songwriters in the band Wussy are my guests on this episode. It was recorded live in June in front of a great audience at Club 603 in Baltimore. Wussy put out a fantastic record called Cincinnati, Ohio last year which dealt a lot with losing their bandmate John Erhardt. We talked about that as well as the TV show Mannix, Celine Dion’s Stevie Wonder cover, the origins of their band, Club 603, breaking bones, seeing ghosts, and finding dead bodies. It’s an excellent and funny conversation. Huge thanks to Chuck and Lisa and Club 603 for hosting. Listen and subscribe!

Jeff and Steven MacDonald from Redd Kross are my guests on this episode of That’s How I Remember It, and I couldn’t be more psyched. These brothers are the subject of a fantastic recent book, an amazing documentary film, and they put out a great double record last year. I’ve been obsessed with them going back to the 80s, and we talk about that here. We also talk about them trading VHS tapes with Quentin Tarantino, seeing REO Speedwagon and Ohio Players at a live recording of Don Kirchner’s Rock Concert, Jeff seeing the Beatles at age 2, sharing a memory as brothers, Kiss Dynasty, The Replacements, Syd and Marty Krofft, and of course I brought up the Bay City Rollers. Amazing episode, listen and subscribe!

Ezra Furman is my guest on this episode of That’s How I Remember It. I’ve been a massive fan since I heard her 2013 release Day of the Dog, and her new record Goodbye Small Head might be her best yet. We talked about that as well as music taking the place of religion, rituals, The Waterboys, community, the top ten hits of 1961, early songwriting attempts, memory from a trans perspective, and so much more. I have been hoping to have Ezra on the show for a long time, and it was everything I hoped it would be. A fantastic conversation, check it out and subscribe!

The case of Evan and Chris, best friends who love playing music together. But after the band suffers a terrible tragedy, they find themselves unable to regain their momentum. We pair them up with another musician who’s all too familiar with the neverending drama that comes with being in a band with friends.  From the episode:  Listen to The Superweaks and the single "Blindside" from their new record The Superweaks Superweekly Supercast episode where Yowei stumbles into the case Follow them on Instagram @thesuperweaks Read Ryan Dusick's memoir Harder to Breathe: A Memoir of Making Maroon, Losing It All, and Finding Recovery Learn more about Ryan and follow him on Instagram @ryan_michael_dusick Listen to The Harder To Breathe Podcast  The Music Industry Therapist Collective Subscribe to Proxy with Yowei Shaw.