The Music Book Podcast

On this episode, Marc talks with Ian Thompson , author of "Synths, Sax, & Situationists: The French Musical Underground 1968-1978," published in August of 2025. It's a detailed history of a group of French rock bands who, inspired by the protests and civil unrest of May 1968 as well as psych rock and free jazz, broke with convention to create some of the most original music of t...

On this episode, Marc talks to J. Hoberman , author of "Everything is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde--Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop," released in May of 2025. It's a fascinating, real-time history of the art coursing through New York City in the 1960s, with vivid descriptions of plays, concerts, events, political movements, and all other types of creative m...

On this episode, Marc talks with Audrey Golden , author of "Shouting Out Loud: Lives of the Raincoats," published on July 15, 2025. It's an innovative and thorough biography of the crucial UK band the Raincoats, told through an unconventional structure which divides their history not into eras, but "lives" - those of the band members, their supporters, and the people they...

On this episode Marc talks with Jason Schneider , author of " That Gun in Your Hand: The Strange Saga of ‘Hey Joe’ and Popular Music’s History of Violence," published in June of 2025. It's a fascinating look at the way the song "Hey Joe" has weaved its way through music over the course of the past six decades, from its origin in the hands of a singer and guitarist named Bi...

On this episode, Marc talks with Brian Anderson, author of "Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection," published in June of 2025. It's a detailed and compelling tale of how the Grateful Dead, over the first decade of their existence, continually created and expanded their own sound system into a gigantic tower of speakers known as the Wall...

On this episode, Marc talks with Dean Van Nguyen , author of "Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur," published in May of 2025. It's a fascinating look at the socially-conscious life of rapper 2Pac, developed while growing up around radical black activism, particularly that of his mother Afeni Shakur of the Black Panther Party. This includes a thrilling opening...

On this episode, Marc talks with Niko Stratis , author of "The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman," published on May 6, 2025. It's a memoir of Stratis's many experiences and life changes, explored through music that has greatly affected her, with each chapter focused on a specific song. Stratis expertly mixes her own story with the stories of these songs and how those two things int...

On this episode, Marc talks with Jon King, author of "To Hell With Poverty / A Class Act: Inside the Gang of Four," published in April of 2025. It's an engaging, fast-paced memoir by the lead singer of legendary UK band Gang of Four, whose classic lineup also included guitarist Andy Gill, drummer Hugo Burnham and bassist Dave Allen.  King's tales of his youth up through the for...

On this episode, Marc talks with Lisa MacKinney , author of "Dressed in Black: The Shangri-Las and Their Recorded Legacy," released in March of 2025. It's a thorough history of the 1960's group comprising sisters Mary and Betty Weiss and twins Mary Ann and Marguerite Ganser, best known for their hits  “Leader of the Pack” and “Remember (Walking in the Sand)." MacKinney sta...

On this episode, Marc talks with Matthew Shipp , author of "Black Mystery School Pianists and Other Writings," published in April 2025 by Autonomedia. It's a collection of essays, poems, tributes, obituaries and more. Shipp, best known for his piano playing (solo, in collaboration, and with the David S. Ware quartet), presents much of what he's learned and contemplated over dec...

On this episode, Marc talks with Mark Doyle , author of "John Cale's Paris 1919 ," published in February of 2025 as part of the 33.3 series of short books on individual albums. It's a fascinating examination of John Cale's 1973 album, which Doyle approaches along the theme of "ghosts," with chapters on "The Ghosts of New York," "The Ghost of Dylan...

On this episode, Marc talks with S.H. Fernando Jr ., author of "The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap's Masked Iconoclast," released in October of 2024 by Astra House. It's a thorough and thought-provoking biography of the legendary rapper, writer, and producer known best as MF DOOM. Fernando delves into the mystery of DOOM's work and life while also capturing the magic t...

On this episode, Marc talks with Eric Shade, author of "All Over The Place - The Rise of The Bangles From The L.A. Underground," published in January of 2024. It's a super detailed, comprehensive biography of the Bangles from the childhoods of each member up to the present day, as well as a compelling depiction of the LA scene, especially the Paisley Underground, that they grew up f...

On this episode, Marc talks with Angela Jaeger, author of “I Feel Famous: Punk Diaries 1977-1981,” released on February 4th, 2025. It’s a compendium of her diary entries when she was a teenager living in New York and London, going to see punk bands at CBGB’s, Max’s, Tier 3, and many other places. Jaeger seemingly saw and met every band around, forging friendships with the Cramps, Teenage Jesus and...

On this episode, Marc talks with Donna-Claire Chesman . She’s the author of “Crybaby: The Artists Who Shaped Emo Rap,” published on January 21, 2025. It’s a fascinating look at a genre that grew up from the Soundcloud underground to become wildly popular, focusing on artists like Atmosphere, Lil Peep, Yung Lean, and Juice WRLD. “Crybaby” does justice to a musical subculture that’s more complex and...

On this episode, Marc talks to Daniel Spicer, author of "Peter Brötzmann: Free-Jazz, Revolution and the Politics of Improvisation,” published January 14, 2025. It’s a thorough and fascinating biography of the German musician best known for his roaring saxophone tone and boundary-breaking albums like “Machine Gun” and “Nipples." Talking with Brotzmann and his collaborators, Spicer digs de...

On this episode, Marc talks with Liz Pelly, author of “Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist,” published on January 7, 2025. by One Signal. It’s a deeply reported expose of the streaming service Spotify and how their decisions and manipulations have changed music both for artists and for listeners. Liz has been reporting on Spotify for almost a decade and her many...

On this episode, Marc talks with Brendan Greaves, author of “Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen,” published in March of 2024. It’s a thorough and compelling biography of artist, musician, and performer Terry Allen, whose art has crossed lines from museum-hosted visual art to outlaw country to work that no genre can contain. Greaves, who runs the record label Paradise of Bachelors,...

On this episode, Marc talks with Jim Saah , author and illustrator of “ In My Eyes: Photographs 1982-1987,” originally published in 2021 and out in a second edition now. It’s a huge, beautiful book of black and white photographs taken by Saah of an astounding array of punk and post-punk groups, from the Ramones to Black Flag to Fugazi to Pavement. It also includes Saah’s interviews with artists wh...

On this episode, Marc talks with Marcus J. Moore , author of “High and Rising: A Book about De La Soul,” published today, November 19. It’s a biography of the legendary rap trio that also weaves in Moore’s own story as well as the evolution of rap from the 80s, when De La Soul started, to today. It's a follow up to Moore's first book, “The Butterfly Effect,” about Kendrick Lamar, which c...

On this episode, Marc talks with Laura Davis-Chanin and Liz Lamere , co-authors of “Infinite Dreams: The Life of Alan Vega,” a deep and thorough portrait of the man most know as half of the innovative duo Suicide, but who also had an amazing career as a visual artist and poet. Laura and Liz weave a compelling narrative of his life with extended quotes from many people whose lives were affected by...

On this episode, Marc talks with Steve Wynn, author of “I Wouldn't Say It If It Wasn't True: A Memoir Of Life, Music, And The Dream Syndicate,” published in August of 2024. It’s an entertaining and insightful memoir of his music-obsessed life, from his childhood biking to the store to buy records, to his days as a record store clerk and radio DJ, to his co-founding of the Dream Syndicate...

On this episode, Marc talks with Jonathan Grasse , author of “Jazz Revolutionary: The Life and Music of Eric Dolphy,” due out on October 15. It’s a thorough history of the legendary jazz multi-instrumentalist, who produced an impressive body of work both on his own and in groups led by John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, and many more, before his tragic death in 1964 at age 36. Grasse cr...

On this episode, Marc talks with Corey duBrowa , author of “An Ideal For Living: A Celebration of the EP,” published in early 2024. It’s an overview of some of the best EP’s from the 1950s until the present, with decade-themed chapters containing entries on individual releases by a wide range of writers. In addition, duBrowa wrote an opening chapter on the history of the format, and put together a...

On this episode, Marc talks with Henry Rollins , author of “Stay Fanatic! Volume 4,” the latest entry in his series of books chronicling, as he puts it, “Lessons in Possession and Confessions of Obsession.” Written in diary form, “Stay Fanatic!” dives into Rollins’ adventures in listening to music, finding out about music, and hunting for records on Ebay and Discogs. It’s also a kind of travelogue...