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Riffs on Riffs

Riffs on Riffs

By: Evergreen Podcasts
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Riffs on Riffs is about the thrill of musical discovery — that tingle down your spine when a perfect melody kicks in. Every chart-topper is a sonic time capsule. We'll crack it open, trace its history, decode those cryptic lyrics, and unearth the hidden gems in its musical DNA. Hosts Joe and Toby are back as your audio archaeologists, digging up the stories behind the songs. But here's where it gets fun. From those melodies, we riff. Wild tangents, pop culture connections, personal stories, those "shower thoughts" sparked by a killer chorus – think of it as the ultimate deep dive followed by a freewheeling jam session inspired by the hits. Dust off your headphones and get ready to rediscover those songs you thought you knew.All rights reserved 2025 Music
Episodes
  • Wild Pitches: Wasia Project, SunandMoon, LP, Kareen Lomax, Malia, Nothing But Thieves

    Wild Pitches: Wasia Project, SunandMoon, LP, Kareen Lomax, Malia, Nothing But Thieves
    Oct 6 2026
    It’s baseball playoff season, so Joe and Toby are taking the mound for a different kind of pitch. In this special “Wild Pitches” episode, each host brings three artists they think deserve a bigger audience, whether they’re genuinely under the radar, underappreciated in the U.S., or simply making music too good not to share. Toby makes the case for Kareen Lomax and her adventurous, genre-bending sound; the organic R&B and vintage warmth of sunandmoon; and Malia, whose new project If I’m Being Honest pairs a rich, mature voice with deeply personal songwriting. Joe counters with South London sibling duo Wasia Project and the lush, cinematic Nocturne; longtime favorite LP, whose unmistakable voice and songwriting have built a massive following overseas; and UK rock band Nothing But Thieves, powered by huge songs and the remarkable vocals of Conor Mason. Along the way, the conversation wanders exactly where a Riffs conversation should: Missy Elliott, Stevie Wonder, George Michael, family collaborations, the return of organic musicianship, the virtues of a great EP, Critical Role, overly long fantasy novels, and what makes an artist truly “vinyl worthy.” Six artists. Two hosts. One highly questionable competition. Listen, make your own picks, and then tell us who won. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Stella Lefty "Boston"

    Stella Lefty "Boston"
    Sep 22 2026
    This week on Riffs on Riffs, Joe and Toby hop aboard Stella Lefty’s “Boston,” a deceptively simple song about what happens when something good shows up and your first instinct is to run the other way. The conversation starts with the noise surrounding Lefty: accusations of nepotism, comparisons to Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season,” questions about borrowed melodies, and the eternal debate over whether any song can truly be original. From Bruno Mars and Stevie Wonder to Tom Petty, the Chili Peppers and J Dilla, Joe and Toby explore the blurry lines between influence, inspiration and imitation, and wonder whether sometimes we’d all be better off turning on airplane mode and simply listening to the music. They also dig into the unusual way “Boston” grew from a short social-media snippet into a finished song after listeners responded to it, sparking a larger conversation about the benefits and dangers of letting audiences shape creative work. But the heart of the episode is the song itself. A lyric about wanting to run when someone is actually treating you well opens the door to self-sabotage, vulnerability and what Toby calls being “scared of success.” From there, “Boston” becomes a launching point for a much bigger conversation about hope as a verb, resilience through struggle, sacrifice, and the things we learn simply by showing up when we’re nowhere near our best. Plus: terrible dates, pineapple on pizza, mysterious arm name tags, childhood book “borrowing,” TV shows that stayed too long at the party, and a surprisingly passionate defense of the word “courting.” Sometimes a song doesn’t have to reinvent music. Sometimes a good song is just a good song. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Steve Lacy "Oh yeah?"

    Steve Lacy "Oh yeah?"
    Sep 8 2026
    What happens when R&B, grunge, hip-hop and a healthy disregard for genre boundaries all collide? This week, Joe and Toby dive into Steve Lacy’s “Oh Yeah?,” a track that found new life through the Spider-Man soundtrack and opens the door to a much bigger conversation about where music and culture itself is headed. They unpack Lacy’s stripped-down, almost stream-of-consciousness approach to songwriting, the vulerability running through his music, and why today’s artists seem increasingly comfortable trading polish and perfection for something more immediate and human. From the return of live bands to bedroom production, alternative R&B, retro soul and artists who refuse to stay neatly inside a single genre, the musical map is getting wonderfully messy. But the conversation goes beyond music. Joe and Toby wrestle with the weight younger generations are carrying, the tension between fatalism and hope, and whether the same generation questioning old rules about music is also preparing to rewrite some of the rules about work, culture and society. Plus, they make the case for building your own yearly soundtrack instead of letting Spotify do it for you, and share what they’re listening to now, including Baby Rose, Jungle, Buttered, Nothing But Thieves, LP, Lucky Daye, Leon Thomas and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 7 mins
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