The Music Book Podcast

Episod

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  094 John Davis on DC Music Fanzines 28.07.2026 54min

  On this episode, Marc talks with John Davis, author of "Keep Your Ear to the Ground: A History of Punk Fanzines in Washington, DC," published in October of 2025. It's a thorough history of punk fanzines in DC from the 70s to the present day, focused on the stories of the people behind these publications and the way they both covered and influenced one of the most vital music scenes in the world. Davis gives time to small-run, more obscure zines that might otherwise have been lost to history, ...
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  093 Craig Robertson on Chris Knox 14.07.2026 59min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Craig Robertson, author of "Chris Knox: Not Given Lightly," published in October of 2025 in New Zealand and available for pre-order now in the US. It's an incredibly thorough biography of the musician, artist, critic, and character who had so much influence on New Zealand indie music from the 70s until now, through his bands the Enemy, Toy Love, and Tall Dwarfs, as well as his huge role in the country's legendary indie label Flying Nun. As Craig writes, "Knox ...
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  092 Barry Walters on the History of LGBTQ Music 30.06.2026 47min

  On this episode, Marc talks Barry Walters, author of "Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969-2000," published in May of 2026. It's a fascinating version of music history focused on LGBTQ musicians and audiences, with chapters centered on specific artistsm from the Velvet Underground through David Bowie up to Judas Priest, Diana Ross, Prince, Depeche Mode, and so many more. Walters delves into each with the eye of a seasoned rock critic and the skill of a journalist, telling their stories...
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  091 Steve Lowenthal on John Fahey 16.06.2026 1j

  On this episode, Marc talks Steve Lowenthal, author of "Dance of Death: The Life of John Fahey, American Guitarist," published in June of 2014. It's an enthralling biography of the legendary guitarist, writer, painter, and music historian, whose solo instrumental guitar work drew on so many sources and added so much that an entire genre became associated with him. "Dance of Death" is lean and efficient, but Lowenthal manages to fit such a wealth of information in its 220 pages that you might ...
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  090 Ben Cardew on Stereolab 02.06.2026 50min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Ben Cardew, author of "Space Age Batchelor Pad Music: The Story of Stereolab in 20 Songs," published in April of 2026. It's a mix of biography and criticism that gets at both how Stereolab made their music and why it's had such an effect on so many people. The 20 song framework helps Cardew structure the narrative well, but he is also not beholden to it, as he covers many other songs, albums, stories, and ideas that surround this fascinating group. As Ben writ...
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  089 Caryn Rose on Patti Smith 12.05.2026 50min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Caryn Rose, author of Why Patti Smith Matters, published by the University of Texas Press, and Three Chords and Blessed Noise: A Patti Smith Tour Chronicle, a chapbook released on her own Till Victory Press imprint. The former is part biography, part memoir of Smith fandom, and part critical analysis of Smith's work and life. The latter is a tour diary that Rose wrote when she went to four Smith concerts held in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Smith's d...
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  088 Richard Langston on the Clean 05.05.2026 1j 3min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Richard Langston, author of "The Clean: In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul," published in April of 2026. It's an excellent oral history of the Clean, the band started by brothers David and Hamish Kilgour along with Peter Gutteridge, and then Robert Scott. Langston tells their story thoroughly through interviews with the band and the many New Zealand music figures who surrounded them as well as American bands who played with them, alongside quotes from rev...
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  087 Steve Bowie on Cootie Williams 21.04.2026 47min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Steve Bowie, author of "Concerto for Cootie: The Life and Times of Cootie Williams," released in October of 2025. It's an in-depth look at the saga of a revered trumpet player who was a vital member of Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman's groups, as well as spending 20 years as a band leader of his own. He was a massively popular artist who consistently filled venues and won jazz awards, but he never had a crossover hit and subsequently his story has been somewh...
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  086 Melvin Gibbs on How Black Music Took Over the World 14.04.2026 41min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Melvin Gibbs, author of "How Black Music Took Over The World," published today, April 14, 2026. It's a unique look at what Gibbs considers "the science of Black Music," a combination of musical theory, analysis, history, and memoir. Gibbs has played in such diverse projects as Defunkt, Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society, Rollins Band, and the Punk-Funk All Stars, as well as collaborating with Arto Lindsay, Bernie Worrell, Marc Ribot, Vernon Reid, ...
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  085 Peter J Woods and John Melillo on the Academics of Noise 07.04.2026 1j 2min

  On this episode, Marc talks to two authors, Peter J. Woods and John Melillo. Peter is an assistant professor in learning sciences at the University of Nottingham in England, and John is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Arizona. They've both written academic books about noise: Woods' "Learning Through Noise" was published in early 2025, and Melillo's "The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk" was published in 2020. In the former, Woods examines noise as a potential vehicle ...
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  084 Adele Bertei on the Women of No Wave 31.03.2026 46min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Adele Bertei, author of "No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene," released today, March 31, 2026. It's an insightful and super-entertaining chronicle of Bertei's journey through New York music and art in the late 70s, including her time in Contortions and The Bloods as well as her solo career. It also delves deep into so many figures of the scene that Bertei worked and associated, particularly women such as Lydia Lunch, Nan Golden,...
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  083 Kembrew McLeod on Blondie and the Downtown Pop Underground 24.03.2026 57min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Kembrew McLeod, the author of two closely related books: "Parallel Lines," an entry on Blondie's 1978 album for the 33.3 series published in 2016, and "The Downtown Pop Underground: New York City and the Literary Punks, Renegade Artists, DIY Filmmakers, Mad Playwrights, and Rock 'N' Roll Glitter Queens Who Revolutionized Culture," published in 2018. Both books cover all the amazing counterculture music and art made in the 60s and 70s in New York, and how...
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  082 Ronen Givony on NYC Indie, 2004-2014 17.03.2026 44min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Ronen Givony, author of "Us v. Them: The Age of Indie Music and a Decade in New York (2004-2014)," published in March of 2026. It's a fascinating history of the indie and underground music scene in Brooklyn during a time when Givony ran the Wordless Music concert series, worked for Nonesuch records, and pursued many other music-related activities. Givony divides the book into chapters on individual bands, curators, venues, and publications that had a huge effe...
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  081 Andy Beta on Alice Coltrane 03.03.2026 52min

  On this episode, Marc talks to Andy Beta, author of "Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane," published in March of 2026. It's a thorough and insightful biography of the musician and her various lives as a prodigious young student, a seasoned jazz player, a wife and mother tightly bonded to her husband John Coltrane, and a swami who reached spiritual heights as a teacher and leader. Andy charts all of these versions of Coltrane while also providing close readings of ...
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  080 Daniel Rachel on Nazi symbols in Rock'n'Roll 17.02.2026 44min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Daniel Rachel, author of "This Ain't Rock'n'Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika, and the Third Reich," published in February of 2026. It's an enthralling and massively important look at many of the bands and artists who have flirted with, or even flat out adopted, Nazi iconography in their art, music, dress, performances, and more. Rachel lays out plainly and with thorough context the stories of these artists' use of Nazi symbols, in the process showing how rarely t...
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  079 Howard Fishman on Connie Converse 03.02.2026 45min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Howard Fishman, author of "To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse", published in May of 2023. It's part biography, part detective story, as Fishman combs through the facts and myths behind singer and guitarist Connie Converse, who made music in the 1950s that went unreleased in her time, and then vanished in the mid-70s at age fifty, never to be heard from again. Fishman meets her family members, friends, people who saw her pl...
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  078 Matthew Blackwell on Plunderphonics 20.01.2026 51min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Matthew Blackwell, author of "Plunderphonics," part of the 33.3 "Genres" series of books focusing on specific musical styles and movements. "Plunderphonics" covers artists who use other people's recordings in their music without permission, often to make a statement about copyright law, the idea of fair use, and so forth. Blackwell focuses primarily on four artists - John Oswald, who coined the term Plunderphonics, Negativland, Avalanches, and Girl Talk - but ...
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  077 Seth Neblett on the Women of Parliament-Funkadelic 06.01.2026 56min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Seth Neblett, author of "Mothership Connected: The Women of Parliament-Funkadelic," published in September of 2025. It's a fascinating oral history of the female members of Parliament and Funkadelic, particularly those in the P-Funk sister groups Parlet and the Brides of Funkenstein: Mallia Franklin, Lynn Mabry, Dawn Silva, Debbie Wright, and Shirley Hayden. Seth is the son of Mallia Franklin, who, along with being an important musician in the P-Funk story, wa...
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  076 Josh Bloom on The Apples in stereo 23.12.2025 48min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Josh Bloom, author of "The Apples In Stereo," published in December of 2025. It's all about the Denver band The Apples in Stereo, who began in the early 90s and were part of the Elephant 6 Collective alongside Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, of Montreal, and more. Josh has known members of the band for decades, particularly their main leader Robert Schneider, and his book is a mixture of informational bio and first-person narrative, written in a con...
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  075 Al Shipley on Baltimore Club Music 09.12.2025 44min

  On this episode, Marc talks with Al Shipley, author of "Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music," published in August 2025. It's a thoughtful, detailed, and revealing look into a music movement that grew organically in Baltimore clubs, radio stations, and record stores, with beats and other musical ideas passed around quickly so that the styles and sounds morphed constantly. Though it may not have gotten a lot of play outside of the city, was as innovative and important as any club mu...