Episode 24: Sweeping Promises

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