In the 1990s, Us3 reshaped the global music landscape by fusing hip-hop and jazz in ways that felt both groundbreaking and a little bit inevitable. Their 1993 debut, Hand on the Torch, became Blue Note Records’ first platinum-selling album and introduced an entire generation to the possibilities of genre fusion. Yet, after a run of chart success and international touring, the project receded from the spotlight, and founder/producer Geoff Wilkinson stepped into other creative lanes.

After a decade-long hiatus beginning in 2014, Wilkinson has returned with Soundtrack—a striking reinvention that distances itself from Us3’s past vocal-driven records. His new work leans fully into instrumental storytelling, drawing on orchestral textures, intricate rhythm patterns, and social commentary.

Wilkinson joins me on this episode to discuss why now was the right time to resurrect his genre-bending alter ego.

Chris Stamey has long been a quietly pivotal figure in American music. From co-founding the influential avant-pop band The dB’s and releasing early indie classics, to his work with Alex Chilton, Big Star’s Jody Stephens, and a wide array of sonic adventurers, his career has bridged the experimental and the melodic, the cerebral and the emotional.

With his latest album, Anything Is Possible, Stamey returns not to the past, but to the feelings that defined it, particularly the wonder and harmonic richness of AM radio pop from the late 1950s and early ’60s. Featuring collaborators like the the Lemon Twigs, Marshall Crenshaw, Mitch Easter, and members of the Brian Wilson band and Wilco, the record is both deeply personal and richly collaborative, built from meticulous arrangements and inspired improvisations.

Stamey’s journey—from CBGBs to Chapel Hill, from indie icon to orchestrator of Big Star’s Third concerts—has always been about curiosity, craft, and a refusal to settle into any single identity. In this conversation, we speak with Stamey about the making of Anything Is Possible, his thoughts on musical memory, harmonic language, and collaboration, and how decades of experience continue to sharpen his vision rather than blur it.

In a moment where algorithms increasingly shape what we hear, see, and feel, Mocky’s Music Will Explain offers something radically simple: the sound of human beings in a room, making music together. Known for his shape-shifting musical identity and wide-ranging collaborations, Mocky’s work has always blurred the lines between genre and geography. But on his new album, released via Stones Throw, he turns inward and local, recording in his Los Angeles garage with friends and neighbors, using a single microphone and an old tape recorder.

The result is intimate, communal, and defiantly analog—a record built on vocal harmonies, live instruments, and a spirit of spontaneity. With influences ranging from the Bee Gees to Brazilian music to Sesame Street singalongs, Music Will Explain channels a timeless joy, even as it wrestles with big questions about creativity and connection in the age of AI.

We spoke with Mocky about his search for the “sound of humans,” the process of capturing voices to tape, and why music still has the power to explain what words can’t. What follows is a conversation about the deep value of making something real.