Crate-digger talk with dining-room velocity.
Lightnin' Licks Radio treats record collecting as obsession, social history, and excuse for fast table-talk. The show moves from vinyl records and music discussion to sample sources, baseball nostalgia, local-store lore, and whatever side road gets the room laughing.
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Lightnin' Licks Radio is a music-discussion show shaped by record collecting, friendship, and the pleasure of chasing a song back through its context. It is fast. It does not treat vinyl as a lifestyle prop so much as a physical archive of obsessions, old jobs, local stores, scenes, shows, and arguments that keep resurfacing every time someone pulls another title from the shelf. The conversations often begin with joking housekeeping or an absurd tangent. Then music appears, and the room locks in. Living Colour leads to talk about records, touring, and what members may have done after the band. La Butcherettes becomes a memory of seeing them open for At the Drive-In, with Terry Genderbender singled out as an unforgettable front person. Pavement opens a path through Stephen Milkmas, The Hard Quartet, The Jicks, school memories, Camelot, and the slow process of learning why a band finally makes sense. Not A Surf becomes a conversation about consistency, love songs, and the comfort of a band that may not shock the system but reliably gives something back. Bonus episodes loosen the frame further. They can stack Roy Ayers, Wartime, Digable Planets, Billy Woods, Outkast, Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, Cavalier, Child Actor, and more into a mixtape-minded roll call. One Spring Training episode shifts into Detroit Tigers memory, Ernie Harwell, childhood radio, and the unreliable way personal history can fuse box scores, voices, and invented certainty. That move says a lot about the show. Music is the center, but memory is usually close by. So are jokes. Jay is a recurring named presence, while Deanna is named as a member of Lightning Licks Vital Preservation Society, and Don appears as a friend. The show is not polished into neutral critic-speak. It has gaps, detours, blunt edges, and occasional adult gross-out humor. Still, beneath the looseness is a real crate-digger ethic: name the record, place it in a lineage, remember who pointed toward it, and send people back to local record stores with something new to hunt.
Made for: For vinyl collectors, music enthusiasts, mixtape makers, and music fans who like criticism with jokes, memory, and record-store specificity. It especially suits listeners who enjoy deep cuts sitting beside familiar names.
What sets it apart: The show turns record picks into lived oral history, not polished capsule reviews. Its strength is the way a record, show, or sample source can trigger a funny detour and still land back on why the music matters.
A podcast for music enthusiasts by music enthusiasts featuring two passionate fellas (and occasional guests of all genders) who are obsessed with collecting vinyl records; old to current, new and used. All eras of many genres. Lightnin' Licks Vinyl Preservation Society founding members Jay and Deon discuss the records that they've fallen in love with, taking deep dives into the stories behind their beloved LPs and 45s. Each episode is produced in supersonic stereo as a mixtape within a mixtape featuring sounds from your next favorite artist just waiting to be discovered. Tune in and rock out!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Deon and Jay turn record collecting into candid recommendations shaped by memory, disagreement and the pleasure of passing music between friends.
Lightnin' Licks Radio turns the record pile on Deon and Jay's dining-room table into a loose, opinionated conversation about why particular albums endure and what deserves another spin.
Jay and Dion turn a dining-room table into your favorite record-store argument.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A crate-digger hangout that turns the show's origin story into easy, lively record talk.
This episode plays like a relaxed crate-digger hangout built around the show's origin story. Jay and Howard explain how Lightning Licks got its name after both brought the same Brothers Johnson, Look Out for Number One record to an early DJ gig, then drift from a…
A return visit built around Pavement, The Hard Quartet, and record-store memory.
Lightning Licks Radio comes back after a little time away and settles quickly into music talk. A lot of the episode hangs on The Hard Quartet, Stephen Malkmus, The Jicks, and Pavement, and the conversation gives those records the sort of store-counter memory that makes them feel…
A Detroit baseball memory meets the official record and still keeps its hold.
Spring training opens into a story about how baseball memory gets built, bent, and trusted anyway. A long-held wish to be there leads back to Detroit loyalty, summer 1968, childhood nights with Ernie Harwell on a transistor radio, and one vividly remembered game that the record…
A year-end leftovers episode finds its sharpest groove with Tanuki Chan's noisy, pretty Circles and a side of Chicago snack lore.
The episode turns year-end leftovers into a reason to keep listening past the obvious picks. It moves from an 80s band whose sound still feels modern to Anya Hugh making music with Mona Muir, who had a studio in Berlin, before settling on Tanuki Chan's five-track Circles EP.
A year-end roundup that plays like a record-table conversation.
Lightnin' Licks Radio folds its fourth year-end roundup into a record-table exchange centered on 2022 albums. Dion and Jay keep the talk loose and familiar, which makes the episode feel less assembled than lived in, while the discussion keeps returning to why certain bands still…
Music memories with record-collector warmth.
KISS fandom with the volume left up.
Deanna introduces herself as part of the Lightning Licks Vital Preservation Society, discussing the obsessive relationship with vinyl records while setting a casual, personal scene.
Hosts Jay and Diana introduce themselves and their podcast, discussing recent weather and their mission statement as members of Lightning League.
The hosts Jay and Diana introduce themselves and their podcast Lightning Licks while casually discussing weather and personal energy.
This bonus episode features a humorous and candid conversation about unusual bodily functions, including sphincter control and urination techniques, inspired by Eddie Murphy's stand-up comedy.
The hosts open by telling the story behind the name Lightning Licks.
The hosts return after a little time away and pick right back up with their usual banter.
Lightnin' Licks Radio's “BONUS - Spring Training” connects Ernie Harwell's Detroit Tigers broadcasts with the narrator's childhood baseball imagination.
Lightnin' Licks Radio’s #42 - 2024 Leftovers surveys records that missed the speakers’ year-end lists, including Kim Deal’s first full-length solo album Nobody Loves You More after five decades in music.
This bonus episode features the hosts discussing notable vinyl records from 2023 that didn't make their top 11 list, offering honorable mentions and insights into their record collecting passion.
This is a bonus summer mixtape episode featuring music for a barbecue, presented by Lightning Licks Radio.
The hosts discuss the changing seasons, focusing on the first hot and humid summer day after a mild period, while expressing enthusiasm for a vinyl tablecloth and speculating about the upcoming winter.
This episode features hosts Dion and Jay discussing their vinyl preservation society and welcoming special guest Josh to celebrate their 28th episode.
Lightnin' Licks Radio #27 is a New Year’s Day year-in-review episode where Dion and Jay rank their 2022 vinyl purchases, with Jay repeatedly stressing that the top 11 only counts records they actually own on vinyl.