The Music Book Podcast

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!

Author Amy Coddington discusses how hip-hop entered the mainstream through pop radio in the 80s and 90s. She explores issues of race, economics, and authenticity, emphasizing how the business model of the radio industry affected rap's relationship to the mainstream. This history reveals the story of money, prejudice, and rap's mainstream potential.

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!