Critical Listening

Welcome back to another episode of Critical Listening, DIY Lifers edition. For our third installment of Listening Habits, our series where we talk to musicians about how they interact with music on an everyday basis, we're joined by Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug of the Lawrence, Kansas group Sweeping Promises. We met on the occasion of their new record, You Say I Romanticize, released in August on Sub Pop, for a truly inspired and wide-ranging conversation. In the first half, we dig into: why Mondal and Schnug decided to move from Boston to Kansas, how they used their record label advance to buy a house and turn it into an affordable recording studio for DIY bands, joining the local all-ages show booking collective, how underground music culture can help teach political organizing skills to young people, and more. Then, in the Listening Habits segment, we talk about cassettes, music discovery parlor games, their love of record stores, and some really great ideas on what it means to be a critical listener. Lira and Caufield said their go-to source for music discovery these days has been email newsletters, and they were nice enough to even send us over a list of some of their favorites, which you can check out below in the show notes. Thanks for listening and thanks again to Sweeping Promises for joining us. This episode is free for everyone, but if you want to support us having more conversations with independent artists about the social power of music, consider becoming a subscriber. Sweeping Promises Recommend These Music Newsletters: Trick Bag → trickbag.substack.com Courtesy Desk → courtesydesk.substack.com YellowGreenRed  → yellowgreenred.com See/Saw  → see-saw.fun Death Rock Fairy → deathrockfairy.substack.com  Chasing Sundays  → elienis.com Sound Bites  → soundbitesnyc.substack.com The Future is Ours to Make  →  thefutureisourstomake.substack.com

As usual, this Headlines episode is for paid subscribers only. Head to Patreon.com/criticallistening to access all of our monthly Headlines episodes, as well as our Discord community, and occasional bonus segments. Jimmy Iovine recently told the New York Times that he "doesn't see a downside at all" when it comes to generative AI music, despite that tens of thousands of fully AI-generated recordings are reportedly flooding streaming services every day. Is he being sincere as a legendary producer, or is he speaking with his wallet as a billionaire? We dive into this question and much more in this episode of our Headlines series. Alongside our discussion of the much-talked-about Times interview with Iovine and Dr. Dre, we also discuss the new "AI Persona" badges that Spotify has announced in order to label non-human artist profiles on the platform, and whether or not this approach will make a difference in the long run.

For Episode 22, we spoke with songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and curator Taja Cheek, on the brink of her group L’Rain’s fourth record, fata morgana, out today on Mexican Summer. Taja is a lifelong New Yorker with roots in underground cultural organizing and the institutional art world alike; in addition to her work as a musician, she is also currently the Artistic Director at Performance Space New York. In the first half of the show, we spoke about the new album and what it means to challenge an audience in today's political and social climates. For the second half of the show, we return to our Listening Habits series to learn about how Taja listens to music on a daily basis, her relationship with music technology, how her work as a curator influences her approach to music discovery, how a music recommendation text message from Kyp Malone of TV On the Radio changed her life, and much more. Lastly, Max and Taja go way back, so we also talked at length about the makeshift venue they used to run together out of Taja's basement in Brooklyn, how that period shaped her creative trajectory, and DIY politics in general. That will be available for Patreon subscribers as a bonus segment early next week, so please sign up to hear material like that, our monthly Headlines episodes, and access our Discord community. Thanks again to Taja for joining us and thanks for listening!

The CEO of SoundCloud recently revealed that he regularly seeks advice from what he calls his “AI board”—a model he trained on the interviews and writings of top pop musicians and record industry executives. So for our July 2026 Headlines segment we are wondering: did AI Billie Eilish tell him to buy Nina Protocol? We might not be able to give you an exact answer but we do dive into what we know about the deal and what it might mean for musicians. We are also discussing the Kalshi power-users who recently learned that streaming is, in fact, not a meritocracy, and that digital charts are (shocker) very easily manipulated. Head to Patreon.com/criticallistening to subscribe for all of our monthly Headlines episodes, Discord community, and occasional bonus segments.

Why did Panda Bear and Sonic Boom decide to not put their new record, A ? of WHEN, on any streaming services? And how did they get their label, Domino Recording Co, on board? For episode 20 we're joined by the Lisbon-based Animal Collective and Spacemen 3 members to dive into all of this and more. Since the launch of the pod, we've been hoping to have these sorts of conversations centered on divestment from streaming platforms--not just about why artists are opting out, but the specifics of what they are doing instead--and we thank Noah and Pete for joining us to chat through it. We also couldn't pass the opportunity to ask the two about the ongoing AI debates in music, specifically for their perspectives on the differences between generative AI music and the culture of sampling, the latter of which has been integral to their artistic processes for many years. This episode is now available for free, but if you'd like to support the show so we can keep having more conversations with artists challenging the inevitability of streaming, please consider becoming a paid subscriber on our Patreon. Subscribers also get access to our monthly "Headlines" episodes, our Discord community, and occasional bonus clips.