Today’s show featured a special interview with John Cameron Mitchell, the writer, director and original star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The conversation explored his musical influences from Detroit punk band Death to David Bowie, Little Richard and Bad Brains.

Mitchell comes to Detroit tomorrow as part of the film’s 25th anniversary movie tour. The evening features a restored 4K screening of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” an in-person conversation and audience Q&A with Mitchell, plus a special acoustic performance.

On top of that, new music from Wishy, Dummy, Allison de Groot and Rich Ruth and Nightbus.

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above.

In The Groove with Ryan Patrick Hooper playlist for October 20, 2026

• “All The Rage” — Wishy
• “1000 Pounds” — Superchunk
• “She Walks” — Poster Children
• “You Can Have It All” — Yo La Tengo
• “Nervion” — Allison de Groot & Rich Ruth
• “False Prophet (ashnymph Remix)” — Nightbus
• “Marianne” — Fontaines D.C.
• “I Love You” — Spacemen 3
• “The Dreaming Moon” — The Magnetic Fields
• “Full Spectrum Dominance” — Dummy
• “Jersey (feat. Jam City)” — Logic1000
• “Destroy Everything You Touch” — Ladytron

Interview with John Cameron Mitchell

• “Freakin Out” — Death
• “Keep On Knocking” — Death
• “Punkrocker (feat. Iggy Pop)” — Teddybears
• “Origin of Love” — Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• “Soul Love (2012 Remaster)” — David Bowie
• “Rip It Up” — Little Richard
• “Wicked Little Town (Hedwig Version)” — Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• “Banned In D.C.” — Bad Brains

Back to the rest of the show!

• “Jewel” — T. Rex
• “Tap Out” — The Strokes
• “Witch Craft” — Erykah Badu & The Alchemist
• “Goin’ Home (Remix)” — McCoy Tyner
• “Les “Là-bas”” — Henri Texier
• “Moon & I (feat. Céline Dessberg)” — Azekel
• “El Gaucho (feat. Marcos Valle, Mirella Costa & Zaza Desiderio)” — Dana and Alden
• “All Blues” — Nicholas Payton & Butcher Brown
• “You Ain’t the Problem” — Michael Kiwanuka
• “Sunshine Kisses” — Sabine McCalla
• “If I Let You” — The Womack Sisters
• “Nowhere to Run” — Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

Listen to In the Groove with host Ryan Patrick Hooper weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. ET on 101.9 WDET or stream on-demand at wdet.org.

“Has it ever been easier to complain publicly about something without trying to change it?”

That’s one of the credos that Panda Bear and Sonic Boom have adopted for the upcoming release of their second collaborative album, “A ? of When,” which came out July 10 via Domino.

It’s a fist-waving-in-the-air against strictly online culture, where a lot of context gets lost. And a lot of musical memory is so brief that it’s easy to feel defeated as an artist.

So it makes sense that, like a lot of musicians, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom are struggling with how to release an album in the digital age. Fair enough. You spend all this time writing and pouring yourself into something. You release it. The internet gobbles it up in mere minutes. The cycle moves on. Did you even release an album? There’s already something else coming down the pipeline…

That’s where a sense of physicality comes in—a physical release like an actual piece of vinyl you’ve got to buy at the store. And, in the case of Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s upcoming album, you can’t even stream this thing online if you wanted to. They’ve made the choice to keep it off of streaming services and to make a bit of an in-real-life-only event. 

All the concern about battling internet release schedules and creating a tangible, physical release also means the title track, “A ? of When (Ultimate Drive Time Mix),” sounds like the full-throated rock and pop records of the late 1960s and 1970s. 

There are elements of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, mostly due to Panda Bear’s uncanny vocals that remind me so much of Wilson. Massive guitars call back to Pete Townshend’s best and biggest work with The Who. Plus, the “Ultimate Drive Time Mix” edit actually takes out the sirens and some of the background clutter from the original version that makes it more suitable for actual radio play – talk about nostalgia!

There’s a throwback sound to the whole affair that makes as much a battle against streaming services as it is a throwback time machine to making music sound a lot like it did back in the day when you had to get up and buy the record and sit and listen to the whole damn thing in your bedroom while reading the liner notes.

And I’ll do just that.

This article was originally published on Midbrow.