The Music Book Podcast

On this episode, Marc talks to Michael Veal, author of “Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital,” released in April 2024. It’s a fascinating, complex study of John Coltrane’s work from 1965 to his death in 1967, and Davis’s “Lost Quintet,” who played from 1968 to 1970 without ever recording in the studio. Comparing the former to digital architecture, and the latter to experimental photography, Veal explores themes of outer space, free meter, race, musical analysis, the avant-garde in jazz, and much more. As he writes, "Similar to the way that my interest in architecture influenced my articulation of rhythmic ideas (with John Coltrane), my immersion in the language and history of photography helped transform what initially seemed like an intractable stumbling block (the lack of official Davis recordings) into a constellation of new opportunities for jazz history, analysis, and interpretation."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Michael Veal!

On this episode, Marc talks with Jon Fine editor of “Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock's Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear),” published in May of 2014. It’s a memoir of his time in the late 80s band Bitch Magnet, as well as his later bands Vineland and Coptic Light, plus the Bitch Magnet reunion in 2011. It's also a bird’s-eye history of indie rock in the 80s and 90s, including quotes from many people who had bands at the time, and lots of compelling descriptions of how exciting things were back then.As Jon writes  “In the eighties and nineties I was certain we were participating in something important...And despite my complicated relationship with this time and its many aftermaths, what I’d do to have that feeling again before I die.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Jon Fine!

On this episode, Marc talks with Ira Robbins, editor of “Zip it Up! The Best of Trouser Press Magazine, 1974-1984,” published in March 2024. It’s an anthology of pieces published in the New York-based magazine Trouser Press, which covered all kinds of rock music and other genres, and launched the careers of writers like David Fricke, Jon Leland, and Tim Sommer. The selections are roughly chronological in order but also grouped into categories such as glam rock, roots of punk, reggae, and post-punk.As Ira writes, “We were determined to never patronize our readers, who we assumed to be intelligent, curious and willing to make a little effort — just as we were in our reading. We used big words, tossed around arcane references, even the occasional sophisticated concept to put across what we wanted to convey."We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ira Robbins!

On this episode, Marc talks with Will York, author of “Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco and the End of the Analog Age,” published in April 2023. It’s a thorough and fascinating history of underground music in San Francisco, from the punk scene at Mahubey Gardens, to the post-punk craziness of Flipper, to the art rock of Tuxedomoon and the Residents, to the weirdness of Thinking Fellers, Caroliner, and Amarillo Records, to the massive success of Faith No More. Will captures San Francisco at a time when truly creative freaks were drawn there, could survive there, and changed the course of underground music.As Will writes, “With the benefit of hindsight, it’s possible to detect premonitions of things to come…as if they could sense that this was somehow a last gasp for a certain age of humanity. Yet instead of fear and loathing, the overriding mood was one of desperation and urgency. To paraphrase Flipper’s Bruce Loose, “It was the dance to the death at the end of the world.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Will York!

On this episode, Marc talks to Michael Azerrad, author of “The Amplified Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana,” published in October of 2023. It’s an update of his 1993 biography of Nirvana, in which he annotates his original book, adding context, perspective, behind the scenes details, and his own feelings about the experience, three decades later, presenting new research and new insights that deepen the narrative and show what it was like to write a book about the biggest band in the world.As Michael writes in his introduction, “My intention isn’t to track down every gory detail, find every skeleton in every closet, it’s to shed additional light on Nirvana’s story, and help Nirvana fans, people interested in the cultural history of the ‘90s, and yes, myself get a better understanding of what the hell happened.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Michael Azerrad!

On this episode, Marc talks to Marshall Gu, author of “Krautrock,” published on November of 2023. Part of the 33.3 "Genre" series, it's a look at Krautrock through chapter-length examinations of 12 individual groups: Can, Faust, Cluster & Harmonia, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Agitation Free, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh, Amon Duul II, Embryo, NEU!, and Kraftwerk. Along the way Marshall points out commonalities between these groups without boxing them into strict genre rules.As he writes in his introduction, “What does Krautrock actually sound like? It can sound the most unrelenting psychedelia you’ve ever heard. It can sound like the most hypnotic grooves found in rock music. It can sound like jazz, like junk, like pure noise, or like peaceful ambient music. It can sound like nothing you’ve ever heard before, which was certainly the original mission statement of many of its practitioners.”We hope you enjoy Marc's chat with Marshall Gu!

On this episode, Marc talks to Simon Price, author of “Curepedia: An A to Z of The Cure,” published on December 12, 2023. It’s a literal encyclopedia of the great British band the Cure, arranged in alphabetical order by subjects, including entries on albums, singles, and band members, plus themed entries such as Drugs, Hair, Drowning, and even Lockjaw. Price’s weaves interesting narratives in many of the entries, with tons of research to back him up.As he writes in his introduction, “...even though this book contains facts, so many facts, the facts themselves are not the point. What I’ve aimed to do is to cross-reference, contextualize, analyze, and provide perspective. To draw unseen connections, and find parallels that are not immediately apparent.”A note about this episode: As Simon and I were chatting, the audio sounded  glitchy and choppy. We tried to fix this and thought we had, but the resulting recording still sounds that way. So I want to apologize in advance if it’s a tough listen, but I felt that our conversation was so good that I didn’t want to redo it. If you find it totally unlistenable, I’ve also made a transcript which I posted on my blog at this URL: https://themusicbookpodcast.blogspot.com/2024/01/transcript-interview-with-simon-price.htmlThanks for bearing with us!

On this episode, Marc talks with Paul Steinbeck, the author of “Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM,” published in paperback in December of 2023. It’s a look at the longtime Chicago-based musical organization the AACM, or Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and began in 1965 and is still going strong today. Paul chose to approach the history of the AACM through individual recordings, focusing each of his chapters on a single album, and providing both a background of the artist and the recording, and a detailed, step by step description and analysis of the music on that record.As he writes in his introduction, “Close analyses of these pieces illustrate how AACM composers and performers advanced the Association’s signature musical practices, from extended forms and multi-instrumentalism to experimental approaches to notation and conducting.”We hope you enjoy Marc's talk with Paul Steinbeck!

On this episode, Marc talks to Steven Jones, author of "Murder Ballads Old and New: A Dark and Bloody Record," published on November 12, 2023. It’s a fascinating and in-depth look at songs throughout history that have dealt with death and tragedy, including folk songs that have been passed down through and transformed by generations, as well as more recent works that are just as affecting and impactful as tunes that are hundreds of years older.As Steven writes in his introduction, “This book is about unhappy music–songs of death and loss caused by sudden, often violent reversals of fortune, celebrated and scrutinized for what each reveals about the human condition, and the role creativity plays in processing trauma and grief.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Steven Jones!

On this episode, Marc talks to Ben Apatoff, author of "Body Count," published on September 7th, 2023. It’s a thorough study of the 1992 self-titled album by Body Count, a band most famous for having Ice-T as their frontman and for a song called “Cop Killer” that stirred up so much controversy even the President had something to say about it. But there’s so much more to the Body Count story, and Ben tells it so well.As Ben writes, “Body Count outlasted the politicians that scorned them and the record stores that banned them…(they’re) still confronting racism, police misconduct, mass incarceration, and political corruption, outliving their old adversaries and striking out at new ones.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ben Apatoff!

On this episode, Marc talks to Nate Patrin, author author of “The Needle and the Lens: Pop Goes to the Movies, From Rock and Roll to Synthwave,” published on November 28th, 2023.  It’s a look at the way songs that already exist–needle drops, as they’re known–have been used in films, transforming both the music and the movie. Each of Nate’s 16 chapters focuses on a specific film and a specific song it uses, exploring the background behind each and the way the combination changes both.As Nate writes, “The needle drop is a strange yet vital component of narrative film–an often direct and instantly memorable way for a director to steer the tone of the film by incorporating a crucial element that they had no hand in creating.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Nate!

On this episode, Marc talks to Amy Coddington, author of “How Hip Hop Became Hit Pop,” released on September 12, 2023. It’s a fascinating study of how hip-hop made its way into the musical mainstream through pop radio in the 80s and 90s. Coddington explores so many issues: what exactly is mainstream, what exactly is rap, how did those two things change each other, plus issues of backlash, economics, authenticity, and more. As she writes, “This history is really a story about money, about how the business model of the radio industry affected rap’s relationship to the mainstream. And it’s a story about race, about how the racial prejudice central to radio’s business model influenced rap’s mainstream potential.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Amy!

On this episode, Marc talks to Will Hermes, author of “Lou Reed: The King of New York” released on October 3rd, 2023. It’s a thorough yet highly entertaining biography of the legendary musician, who Will depicts as a figure with so many sides and so many pursuits, who really can never be reduced down to a single personality, a single motivation, or a single classification.As Will writes in his introduction, “If you’re hoping for some neat totalizing statement or psychological profile to explain Reed, to fix him like a butterfly specimen, you won’t find it here. Somewhat vexing for a biographer, if thrillingly for a fan, Reed was a shapeshifter who represented–lived–the potentialities of identity without apology, one reason why he remains such a complicated figure.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Will!

On this episode, Marc talks with Thurston Moore, author of “Sonic Life: A Memoir,” released today, October 24, 2023. It’s a fascinating story of Moore’s journey through music as a creator and a fan, from his early days discovering records with his older brother, to the end of his longtime band Sonic Youth. It's also a history of the music that surrounded and inspired him, with so many great stories about some of the amazingly creative people he’s met along the way.We hope you enjoy Marc's talk with Thurston!And if you're interested in Marc's new book "High Bias: The Distorted History of The Cassette Tape," check out highbiasbook.com and highbiasbook.bandcamp.com. Thanks!

On this episode, our host Marc Masters is the subject, talking about his new book "High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape," released in October of 2023.  It’s a technical and cultural history of the cassette tape format, charting the many ways that cassettes changed the course of music and brought new possibilities and new kinds of freedom to creators and listeners–tape artists, bootleg traders, mixtape makers, international tape hunters, current tape labels, and more.To talk about how he put the book together, Marc invited writer Jesse Jarnow to be this episode's guest interviewer. Jesse is the author of great histories of Yo La Tengo (“Big Day Coming”), The Weavers (“Wasn’t That A Time"), and a “Biography of Psychedelic America” called "Heads," and he's currently working on a book that includes an exploration of the cassette tape as well.  Jesse is also the co-host of the Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast, which you can find here: https://www.dead.net/deadcastWe hope you enjoy Marc's talk with Jesse!To order a copy of "High Bias" direct from Marc, as well as a companion tape of music from labels featured in the book, go to highbiasbook.bandcamp.com. Thanks!

On this episode, Marc talks with Lior Phillips, author of “South African Popular Music,” released in May of 2023. It's one of the first installments in 33.3's “Genre" series–an extensively researched, information packed narrative covering many different styles of South African music, from stars like Miriam Makeba and Johnny Clegg, to artists little known outside of the country.As Lior writes, “My greatest hope is that by diving deep into the popular music of South Africa, the ways in which African music inspires nearly all of modern music, and the astounding history of the apartheid era, this book may help elucidate those concentric circle of art and politics, grief and rejoicing, that permeate the world at large.”We hope you enjoy Marc's talk with Lior!And if you're interested in Marc's forthcoming book "High Bias: The Distorted History of The Cassette Tape," out October 3 on UNC Press, check out highbiasbook.com and highbiasbook.bandcamp.com. Thanks!

On this episode, Marc talks to Jeff Schwartz, author of “Free Jazz,” published in April of 2023. It’s a smart survey of free jazz that’s structured not around individual artists but more around aspects of free jazz, with chapter titles such as "Energy", "Spirituality", and "Self-Determination."As Jeff writes, “Few pieces or artists will fall neatly into one chapter…There is no discography or recommended listening list at the end of this book. The goal is to suggest things to listen for rather than what to listen to.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Jeff!

On this episode, Marc talks with John Szwed, author of “Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith,” published in August of 2023. It’s a fascinating and superbly skillful portrait of a man who played so many roles: anthropologist, archivist, musicologist, filmmaker, painter. He's best known for his massively influential Anthology of American Folk Music, but he did so much more. Szwed takes a figure who is so hard to pin down and crafts a real story without losing all the mystery of his life and work.As John writes in his introduction,“How are we to understand the paradox of an artist whose life was almost completely outside the public’s view, always on the edge of calamity–if not death–and yet so influential in so many ways?”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with John Szwed!

On this episode, Marc talks to Clifford Allen, author of “Singularity Codex: Matthew Shipp on Rogue Art,” published in August of 2023. It focuses on the 25 releases pianist Matthew Shipp has been involved in for the Rogue Art label, while also functioning as a biography of Shipp as well as a history of the free jazz scene he’s been involved in in New York since the late 1980s. As Clifford explains in his introduction, “[this book]’s purpose is to take a 25-disc slice of Shipp’s universe as a microcosm of the larger world of creative music and explore the mutable interactions between history, current practices, and ideas through the lens of on pianist, his various playing partners, and others who have helped realize this work.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Clifford!

On this episode, Marc talks to Audrey Golden, author of “I Thought I Heard You Speak: Woman At Factory Records,” published in June of 2023. It’s a fascinating oral history of the legendary UK record label told exclusively by women involved in at all levels. Golden talked to nearly 100 individuals for her book, from people who ran the office, to people who managed the bands, to people who promoted the music, to people who worked at the label’s nightclub, the Hacienda, and so much more.As she writes in her introduction, “I set out to do two things: to create an innovative historical record of Factory and its cultural influences, and to collate an archive of women’s experiential knowledge in all its vast, varied, and anecdotal complexity.”We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Audrey!