Episode 71 - Year in Review 2022 with Evan Stephens Hall of Pinegrove

Explicit content warning

01/23/23 • 110 min

In this episode, we talk with prolific reader and accomplished musician Evan Stephens Hall from the band Pinegrove. We discuss his top books of the year and go through a few of our own favorite reading experiences from 2022.

Here is the David Foster Wallace & Richard Powers Q&A we mention.

And here is the reading poriton of that event that begins with DFW talking about the “brick” in his pocket.

The Pinegrove songs featured in this episode are Alaska and Habitat.

Thank you to Rough Trade Records, Pinegrove and Evan Stephens Hall for permission.

Here are our Concavity Show Best Songs of 2022 playlists:

iTunes: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/best-of-2022/pl.u-EdAVv5dCaMJB7j

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1BwuTDJq2LoU8ZzdSDXSK5?si=052f5d25ed514b43

Evan, top books mentioned:

A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines (Gaines stamp!)

Morality Play by Barry Unsworth

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Public Library by Ali Smith (and Autumn!)

Breaking and Entering by Joy WIlliams

Leave Society by Tao Lin

Dave, top books mentioned:

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyaasi

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Autoportrait by Jesse Ball

Liberation Day by George Saunders

Matt, top books read this year:

Robert Crews by Thomas Berger

Literary Alchemist by Steve Paul

We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper

Airport Music by Mark Tardi

Zol by REYoung

Evan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evanstephenshall/

Pinegrove website: https://pinegroveband.com/

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - [email protected]

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

Here is the David Foster Wallace & Richard Powers Q&A we mention.

And here is the reading poriton of that event that begins with DFW talking about the “brick” in his pocket.

The Pinegrove songs featured in this episode are Alaska and Habitat.

Thank you to Rough Trade Records, Pinegrove and Evan Stephens Hall for permission.

Here are our Concavity Show Best Songs of 2022 playlists:

iTunes: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/best-of-2022/pl.u-EdAVv5dCaMJB7j

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1BwuTDJq2LoU8ZzdSDXSK5?si=052f5d25ed514b43

Evan, top books mentioned:

A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines (Gaines stamp!)

Morality Play by Barry Unsworth

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Public Library by Ali Smith (and Autumn!)

Breaking and Entering by Joy WIlliams

Leave Society by Tao Lin

Dave, top books mentioned:

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyaasi

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Autoportrait by Jesse Ball

Liberation Day by George Saunders

Matt, top books read this year:

Robert Crews by Thomas Berger

Literary Alchemist by Steve Paul

We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper

Airport Music by Mark Tardi

Zol by REYoung

Evan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evanstephenshall/

Pinegrove website: https://pinegroveband.com/

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - [email protected]

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

Previous Episode

Episode 70 - Peyton Thomas, author of Both Sides Now

In episode 70, we talk to our friend Peyton Thomas, a DFW, Louisa May Alcott, and American Girl doll enthusiast. His recent YA novel, Both Sides Now, was published in 2021, and his writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Pitchfork, and Billboard, and many other places.

Peyton is currently at work on his second novel, a contemporary interpretation of Little Women. You can read more about this forthcoming book in Oprah Daily. Peyton also hosts a podcast about Little Women called Jo's Boys.

Peyton's website - https://peytonthomas.ca/

Buy Both Sides Now - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/652876/both-sides-now-by-peyton-thomas/

Jo's Boys Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jos-boys-a-little-women-podcast/id1610742792

Peyton's Pitchfork reviews - https://pitchfork.com/staff/peyton-thomas/albumreviews/

Peyton on Twitter - https://twitter.com/peytonology

Infinite Jest Fanfiction on Archive of Our Own - https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Infinite%20Jest%20-%20David%20Foster%20Wallace/works

Contact Dave & Matt:

Email - [email protected]

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

Next Episode

Episode 72 - Sheila Liming, author of Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time

In Episode 72, we welcome friend of the show, Edith Wharton scholar, accordion/bagpiper extraordinaire, and prolific writer, Sheila Liming on to talk about her new book Hanging Out, delving into the myriad ways that unstructured hang time is a radical, life-affirming act that resists capitalist commodification.

The New York Times article on Sheila and the book: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/style/sheila-liming-hanging-out-interview.html

Sheila on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/seeshespeak

Buy the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717263/hanging-out-by-sheila-liming/ and here https://bookshop.org/p/books/hanging-out-the-radical-power-of-killing-time-sheila-liming/18462992?ean=9781685890056

Information about the 2023 DFW Conference in Gettysburg, June 22-24: https://dfwsociety.org/conference/

Contact Matt and Dave:

Email - [email protected]

Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow

Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/