Punk history with the chairs pulled close.
Going Off Track pairs messy banter with serious affection for music, touring, records, and the people who made scenes feel alive. It can start with weather complaints or April Fools irritation, then land on punk ideals, vocal mixes, or why Rick Astley mattered again.
PRESS PLAY
Going Off Track is a long-running music interview show with the patience for history and the attention span of a crowded backstage room. It does not enter through the front door. A recent episode might begin with spring finally arriving, a complaint about heat, a joke about caffeine, or a childhood grudge against April Fools. Then the floor shifts. Suddenly the talk is about peace punk, hippies, Seven Seconds, surfing and skating as escape, or the moral math inside old scenes. That switch is the point. The show lets casual talk carry real context, so the listener hears music culture as something lived through weather, vans, studios, families, and half-remembered arguments. Its recurring music-history segment gives the chaos a spine, turning dates and trivia into riffs about Rickrolling, Rick Astley returning to relevance, Karen Carpenter resurfacing in culture, or Thomas Edison’s microphone work. The interviews are loose, but they are not empty. Conversations with artists and scene figures move through touring sleep arrangements, vocal confidence, reverb choices, punk’s suspicion of pop polish, and the democracy of a band mix. Some episodes reach backward, including flashback chats tied to Walter, Jonah, and Justin. Others feel very present, circling pandemic memory, AI jokes, patron chatter, or the small routines that keep a show alive. The tone is irreverent and conversational. It can be sharp, messy, nostalgic, and sincerely interested within the same minute. That makes Going Off Track stand apart from cleaner music-interview formats: it trusts digression as a way of finding the real subject. The show is best when a stray joke becomes scene lore, or a technical detail opens into a bigger feeling about why songs matter. It is punk history with coffee breath, not a plaque on a wall.
Made for: For listeners who like music interviews that feel lived-in, funny, and scene-aware, especially fans of punk, touring stories, record-making, and conversational tangents. It works best for people who enjoy insider texture without needing everything over-explained.
What sets it apart: The show’s edge is its barstool energy welded to real music memory: recurring history bits, guest conversations, and ordinary-life detours all feed the same larger conversation about scenes, records, and survival.
A weekly interview show hosted by Benny Horowitz (The Gaslight Anthem) and producer, Brad Worrell. The guest list leans musical but with plenty of other interesting folks thrown in.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Going Off Track turns musician conversations into candid talk about recording decisions, touring routines, scene history, and the convictions behind the work.
Going Off Track lets Benny Horowitz and Brad Worrell follow musician conversations wherever touring memories, record-making choices, and everyday absurdities lead.
Tour-room snoring meets punk ideals; you get the music talk and the detours that make it stick.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose punk-and-surfing conversation turns weather, morals, escape, and aging into one reflective hang.
Going Off Track starts with weather complaints and opens into a roaming conversation about punk, surfing, skating, and the values people try to keep as they get older.
A road-tested artist chat where energy shots, bad sleep, and vocal survival all ride together.
Vinnie's visit turns a throwaway joke about truck-stop stimulants into a scruffy, funny look at how touring actually works. The talk wanders from energy shots and creeping normalization to the less glamorous business of guarding sleep when a voice has to survive the next night.
A sharp, easygoing conversation about letting voices, lyrics, and rough-edged records take up space.
Augusta's conversation turns studio craft into a question of nerve: how clearly should a singer, lyric, or melody insist on being heard? Talk of reverb, vocal-forward pop mixes, punk's democratic instincts, and the pressure to stop hiding behind an arrangement gives the episode…
A bizarre arrest story gives way to a warm, unruly ride through Orange County punk.
Going Off Track opens with a strange, funny California arrest involving a Yamaha 350 Li underwater scooter, then eases into a more grounded look at Orange County punk.
A loose, funny tour-life conversation where energy shots and snoring lead back to new music.
Going Off Track catches Vinny in a conversation that keeps drifting from truck-stop energy shots to the practical misery of trying to sleep on tour.
Jeff Rosenstock links sports, political writing, and the uneasy feeling of succeeding in a bleak moment.
Going Off Track starts with sports as the way into a broader Jeff Rosenstock conversation, with his New York Knickerbockers fandom giving the hosts an easy opening before the episode widens out.
Joe Wong interviews drummers and musicians about craft, history, and the working musician's life.
Songs explained from the inside out.
The hosts open from the basement of A-Bar.
Vinny talks touring.
A conversation about a band member's location in the Gulf of Mexico and the impact of new digitized break rules for truck drivers on infrastructure.
Going Off Track revisits episode 344, a 2020 conversation with Chris Shiflett about punk rock and his music career.
A Jello Biafra obscenity raid, a goose laser pointer, and Long Beach Island surf lore thread through Jon Coen's visit to Going Off Track.
["Going Off Track with Vinnie Caruana opens with Red Bull and Monster being compared to \"trucker speed,\" then swings into the 2000 Saturday Night Live \"More cowbell\" sketch with Christopher Walken, Will Ferrell, and Chris Parnell.", "The show also revisits a 1968 NBC duet between Petulia Clark and Harry Belafonte, where a sponsor objected to Clark holding his hand because he sold cars in the South.", "Caruana says he wrote most of the new I Am The Avalanche lyrics after his best friend since seventh grade died, waited about three months before trying, and wanted songs that would stand up over time instead of becoming a one-off grief record.", "He also walks through a daily routine of stretching for a herniated disc, ginger tea, humming warmups, gym time, and a THC gummy before a tour with the Menzingers, before the episode closes on snoring as the worst hotel-room trait."]
William Beckett and Brad discuss their dislike for April Fools' Day pranks, sharing a childhood memory and lamenting the decline of clever internet pranks.
A drummer shares a personal story about finally mastering a tricky bridge in Helmet's 'Unsung' by counting, emphasizing the importance of counting in music.
MVP, who says "the MVP is a character I play" and that his real name is Hassan, argues the best wrestlers are their own personalities "cranked all the way to 11." He describes going from 13-year-old detentions to being locked up at 15 in Miami, then learning from older inmates like Paul, who gave him Forbes and Inc.
Augusta Koch talks with Going Off Track about the new Universal Girlfriend record, her Philly DIY roots, and why “every sunset I squandered” hit her so hard on “Brace Yourself.” She recounts moving from Colorado back to Philadelphia, meeting Danielle through the Menzingers and Ava House, and finding a scene with Kelly and Allegra where Cayetana could form.
Brad introduces a flashback episode featuring an interview with musician Walter Schreifels, discussing punk music and Foreigner.
Jonah and his co-host banter about their podcast's teleprompter, Jewish jokes, and the term 'black bag' before briefly mentioning an XFL documentary.
A California man’s Lake Shasta escape with a Yamaha 350 Li underwater submersible device becomes a short meditation on engineering, air tanks, and 20 minutes underwater.
Matt Pinfield and Brad discuss a chaotic morning with demolition upstairs and a quick shopping trip.
Benny Horowitz interviews a guest about his early radio experiences at Rutgers' WRSU and his connection to Matt Pinfield.