Walls of Sound

On this episode we take a look at the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound, a short lived but wildly ambitious attempt to rethink how live music could sound. Starting with the band’s early gigs and the Acid Tests, we get into how Owsley Stanley and a small group of engineers helped build a massive, three story PA system designed for clarity as much as volume. We talk about how it actually worked, what ma...

In this case study, we dig into the moment Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, and why it still feels like a cultural fault line. We talk myth vs reality, the folk scene’s “moral ecosystem,” the clash between authenticity and evolution, and how one short set helped turn rock into a serious art form. Along the way we hit Greenwich Village, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, the Paul...

On this episode of Walls of Sound, we sit down with Brendan Canty, drummer, producer, composer, and a central figure in the D.C. music community through Deadline, Rites of Spring, Fugazi, and The Messthetics. We recorded this conversation a good while ago (as you can probably tell from the Kennedy Center discussion), back when we were still finding our footing with the podcast. Brendan reflects on...

On Part Two of our Honky Tonk case study, we pick up when the genre hits the national spotlight. We start with Urban Cowboy and Gillies in Pasadena, when a real club turned into a movie set and the movie turned into a blueprint. Neon spreads, mechanical bulls become symbols, and the honky tonk stops feeling local. From there, we follow how honky tonk starts pulling in opposing directions. One side...

In Part One of this two-part episode, we look at the honky tonk as a real place, not the cartoon version people picture today. We talk about why these bars existed and who they were for. Honky tonks were working-class spaces where people went after long days to drink, dance, blow off steam, and get through the night. We trace how honky tonks grew out of older Southern nightlife like saloons, barre...

On this episode, we explore the San Francisco post punk scene from 1978 to 1984. A brief but explosive period that emerged from the collapse of the hippie era and the city’s long history of reinvention. We look at how disillusionment, politics, and geography helped fuel one of the most experimental and genre defying scenes in modern music. We trace the venues, bands, and ideas that shaped the mome...

On this episode of Walls of Sound, we sit down with John Strohm, who went from being a teenage hardcore punk drummer to founding the Blake Babies and becoming the guitar player for the Lemonheads. He served as president of Rounder Records and has represented artists like Alabama Shakes, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Phoebe Bridgers, The Civil Wars, Ruston Kelly, Sturgill Simpson, Billy Strings,...

In this episode of Walls of Sound, hosts Brian Teasley and Ryan Murphy head to Muscle Shoals to sit down with Traci Thomas, the publicist and longtime manager for Jason Isbell and many others. She shares hard earned lessons about slow growth, artist care, and why small rooms are the lifeblood of any scene. Thomas also talks about tending the legacy of Muscle Shoals and pushing it forward into a vi...

In this episode, Brian Teasley and Ryan Murphy talk with NYC music historian Jesse Rifkin, author of This Must Be the Place and creator of Walk on the Wild Side tours, about the vanished venues and shifting scenes of New York City. They explore how DIY culture, real estate, and memory collide in a city that keeps reinventing itself. It’s a love letter and a cautionary tale for anyone who has ever...