Sleigh Bells

In episode 119, I catch up with Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, the noise pop duo better known as ⁠Sleigh Bells⁠. I have been a massive Sleigh Bells fan since their first few singles back in 2009 — brash, genre-defying bangers like “Crown on the Ground” and “Infinity Guitars” that sounded unlike anything else, combining elements of pop, metal, hardcore, hip-hop and punk. They’ve continued to blow my mind with the leaps they’ve made since then. 

The three of us are also old friends at this point, and though we’ve done shorter interviews in the past, it was great to finally get to ask them some of the classic LSQ podcast questions about all the shit they were into as kids. In this episode, Alexis talks about what she learned from her experience in a teen pop band, revelations she had at the punk and hardcore shows she frequented during her New Jersey youth, and learning to integrate the diverse parts of her musical voice.

Derek describes falling in love with the soundtrack to La Bamba as a kid growing up in Florida, and then discovering 80s pop greats like Janet Jackson and Cyndi Lauper before venturing into alternative and hard rock (Nirvana, Silverchair) and then having his mind blown by ground-breaking artists such as Radiohead and Björk, and then eventually joining metal core band Poison The Well in his later teens. They also share the story of how they came together to form Sleigh Bells, and how their current approach builds on the foundational principles they established for the band more than fifteen years ago.

Sleigh Bells’ new sixth studio album, Bunky Becky Birthday Boy, comes out this week and it’s stellar. Find out more (and get tickets for their upcoming tour) at:⁠ tornclean.com⁠

Genesis Owusu – LSQ

“Words were always my weapon,” says Genesis Owusu, talking about the love of creative writing he discovered as a child. “Also kind of ironically, conversation wasn’t always my weapon, so I always felt like the truest and rawest and most authentic of myself came out when I was writing stories or poetry. I’ve always loved world-building. Whether that be though a storyline or a soundtrack or a visual, I’ve kind of just managed to find myself in a path where I can create those worlds that I always wanted to create.” The Ghanian Australian artist’s new album, his third full-length, Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge, is easily one of my favorite albums of 2026 — a powerful and genre defying collection of banger after banger. Although his previous records were more allegorical, for this one, he says there was no mincing words, no grand metaphors, nothing to distract from getting across his message that humanity is too divided, and that we need to come together as a community for the betterment of our common good. We also delve into how his love of science fiction and creative writing helped him connect with that world-building instinct, how his older brother – also an artist – inspired him to start making music, how his songs result from epic jam sessions followed by obsessive collating of sounds, and we talked about anime and André 3000 and Uno and much more. Get tickets for his upcoming shows here. 

1. Genesis Owusu 38:32
2. Corook 45:33
3. American Football – Mike Kinsella 35:40
4. Kneecap 38:15
5. Arlo Parks 36:49