The Music Book Podcast

On this episode, Marc talks with Jamie Fisher, author of "Nobody Broke Your Heart: An Intimate Biography of Elliott Smith," published in August of 2026. It's a thorough and engrossing look at the life of the singer, songwriter and artist who broke through in the 90s and died tragically in 2003 at age 34. Fisher looks deeply into Smith's musical processes and personal relationships, portraying a complicated person who cared deeply about music and people, struggled with his past and his own contradictory impulses, and left behind a creative legacy that still strongly affects people today.

As Jamie writes, "I've written a book that focuses on Elliott's music and the music that mattered to him, the songs and artists that made him feel the way so many of us feel about Elliott. And I've written a book that understands his story in the context of everyone he cared about, including, for the first time, his family and nearly all of his romantic partners."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Jamie Fisher!

On this episode, Marc talks with Michael Rancic, author of "A Nation of Tinkerers: A History of Electronic Music in Canada from 1945 to 1985," released in August of 2026. It's a fascinating and detailed look at the way electronic music evolved in Canada after World War II, from the early innovators who created new technology in academic settings, to the way various genres made strides in using electronics, from reggae to hip-hop to disco to novelty music.

As Michael writes, "From wartime labs of the NRC to the basement studios of bedroom producers, this is a story of access and its absence, of play and resistance. It's a reminder that the sounds shaping Canadian music today – from the pop charts to the avant-garde – were built not in isolation, but through a persistent, collective, and very human act of tinkering."

You can buy Michael's book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-nation-of-tinkerers-a-history-of-electronic-music-in-canada-from-1945-to-1985-michael-rancic/

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Michael Rancic!

On this episode, Marc talks with Josephine Reisman, author of "The Last Temptation of Beck: The Untold Story of a Pop Messiah," released in September of 2026. It's a portrait of Beck during the 90s and early 2000s, the way his music and persona changed over that time,and it goes deep into his ties with Scientology, and how his moving in and out of that culture multiple times might have effected his life as an artist and public figure, as well as the lives of those around him.

As Josephine writes, "When I began this investigation, I thought I was reporting a political story, a work of recent history. What I found instead was a story that was timelier than I could have imagined – albeit not in the ways I expected. The story of Beck in the nineties and early years of this century turned out to be rooted in questions of disinformation, belief, and conspiracy, of who deserves our trust and what it means when our trust is betrayed, questions we grapple with only more today, in our age of malleable facts and unreliable media."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Josephine Riesman!

On this episode, Marc talks with Steven Hyden, author of "Is This It: The Never Ending Rise and Fall of The Strokes (And Rock ‘n’ Roll)," released in September of 2026. It's a look at the career and impact of this New York band who got huge waves of attention when their first album, Is This It, came out in 2001, and have since had a kind of up and down career both commercially and critically. Hyden's book is as much cultural analysis and criticism as it is biography, delving into the way rock and roll itself has changed over the last 25 years, and tackling some bigger philosophical questions about what all of this means.

As Steven writes, "A quarter century after they were heralded as "the coolest band on the planet" by one especially overexcited British music magazine, the Strokes remain a Rorschach test. The aspirations and the biases of the behloder give shape to their otherwise uneven and amorphous body of work. Did the Strokes peak early and fail to live up to lofty expectations? Or did music culture change in such a profound way at the turn of the century that those expectations were already anachronistic by the time Is This It entered record stores?"

We hope you enjoy Marc's chat with Steven Hyden!

On this episode, Marc talks to Kip Lornell and Tom Mindte, co-authors of "Buzz Busby: Father of Washington, DC Bluegrass," published in June of 2026. It's a thorough and fascinating biography of the Bluegrass pioneer Buzz Busby, who moved from Louisiana to Washington DC as a teenager to work for the government, but quickly became an influential player and songwriter, starring on a daily local TV show, performing everywhere around the region, even participating in the show Louisiana Hayride when a budding young star named Elvis Presley was there.

Tom Mindte has worked on this project for decades, gathering recollections of Buzz and researching his life, as well as having played with Buzz himself in various groups. Kip Lornell is a professor and historian, particularly of DC music - in 2024, he wrote "Capital Bluegrass: Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, D.C.," which Mindte contributed to, and in 2009 he co-wrote "The Beat: Go-Go Music from Washington, D.C." with Charles Stephenson.

As they write, "This book is the result of some 20 years of research, including personal interviews with 35 of Buzz Busby's musical associates and family members. But a large part of the story is from the words of Busby himself, capture on tape in the mid-1980s...This quote from Busby sums up his view of his own life: "I started at the top and diligently worked my way to the bottom."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Kip Lornell and Tom Mindte!

On this episode, Marc talks with Ashley Kahn, author of "Days Of Miracle And Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland," released in August of 2026. It's an in-depth look at the making of Simon's classic 1986 album, in which he launched into a new style of songwriting and production, working with many African artists, sometimes in Africa, at a time when there was a loose cultural boycott due to the ongoing apartheid there. Kahn's book delves into how that situation was more complicated than headlines suggested, and is also a fascinating exploration of musical collaboration and how records were made at a time where analog and digital converged.

As Ashley writes, "It is challenging to describe a time when the world seemed to be moving in sync, toward a common good...Graceland served as a soundtrack to that time...[It] was music built on the priority of collaboration and what it locked into was the spirit of community. Simon's triumph was to achieve that, and to do it in a way that, for a moment, swung doors wide open, inviting all to celebrate.

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ashley Kahn!

On this episode, Marc talks to Ira Robbins, editor of "Zip It Up! Too: More of the Best of Trouser Press Magazine, 1974-1984," published on his own Trouser Press Books. It's a follow up to 2024's "Zip It Up!," the first anthology of pieces from the legendary music magazine which Robbins co-founded and co-edited; I talked to him about that book when it came out, and you can hear our conversation in episode 31 which ran in March 2024.

This second volume features more great articles from Trouser Press, as well as the full series of what they called "Autodiscographies," in which bands such as Blondie, John Cale, Iggy Pop, Sparks and more give guided tours through their own discographies as they stood at the time. The book also includes features divided into categories such as The Old Guard, New Wave and Beyond, and Characters, with fascinating pieces on artists from Paul McCartney to the Cure to Can to Duran Duran.

As Ira writes, "The story of Trouser Press resembles the story of a band. We met in high school, got things going in college, had fun for a while, met a lot of great people, made no money, broke up - and then got famous. We never had a clear sense of what the magazine meant to anyone until we stopped. Since 1984, I have been amazed by how durable a concept, a memory, an ideal Trouser Press turned out to be."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ira Robbins!

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, and shows how punk and indie in DC developed, changed, and continues to matter.

As John writes, "Without the photographers, concert promoters, volunteers, audio engineers, showgoers, record stores, and other key elements, there is no punk scene. This book examines another of those integral, yet under-explored, parts of DC punk – fanzines and the fans who made them."

Keep Your Ear to the Ground grew out of the work Davis has done as curator of Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland's Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, where he's been since 2013, and where he established the D.C. punk and indie fanzine collection, an archive of DC zines that continues to grow and is open to the public. Read more here:

https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/diy-dc-punk-and-indie-fanzine-collection-at-university-of-maryland-college-park-archives-deep-dive

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with John Davis!

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 deserves a biography because of the immense impact he’s had in New Zealand and overseas, largely through his music. But he’s also a critic, a cartoonist, a writer, an artist. And he’s an enormously colourful personality — opinionated, provocative, endlessly creative."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Craig Robertson!

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 and measuring their impact on LBGTQ culture and society as a whole.

As he writes, "Straight critics have been telling us how to hear our music for ages, so I’m simply offering a queer alternative—based on forty years of professional research and two prior decades of fandom, with insights gleaned not only from when these records were new and we experienced them in the moment but also from retrospection and insider information."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Barry Walters!

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 be astounded by how much you've learned once you've finished reading.

As Steve writes, "John Fahey remains an ineffable presence, a touchstone. Seemingly, his career was in preparation for his legacy, with his copious notes and fictions providing its building blocks. His albums are the soundtrack to his story, and Blind Joe Death his alter ego. As a scholar, he saw the scope of modern music, and carved his place therein by weaving fragments of cultures and genre together in his own strange collage."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Steve Lowenthal!

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 writes, "I've been listening to Stereolab since around 1992...and I still don't fully understand them...This is the story of Stereolab in twenty songs, each of which illustrates a certain facet of the band's abundant personality. It's not a comprehensive list, and it's not meant to be; it's a guide, a weak torch with dodgy batteries to light up your trip into the yawning Stereolab cave."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Ben Cardew!

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 debut album Horses in November of 2025.

Taken together, these books paint a portrait of Smith as a vital artist but also a devoted worker, someone who never stops putting time and energy into her art. Rose herself has been a writer for many decades, so she knows what it's like to treat creativity as a job, and it makes her insights about Smith particularly sharp.

As Rose writes in Why Patti Smith Matters, "This is not a biography and this is not a hagiography. This is a book about Patti Smith's work, because it is her work that matters, and because of that work and the value that she places on her labor within the creative process."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Caryn Rose!

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 reviews and interviews during the band's tenure and archival material like their journals and letters.

As Richard writes, "Once Hamish Kilgour and Robert Scott also agreed to tell the story, David and I discussed how to go about it, and we agreed on an oral history. We liked that format of storytelling as you can hear the unmediated voices of the different participants, giving it an immediacy and the richness of multiple voices talking about the same events."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Richard Langston!

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 somewhat lost to history. Bowie corrects that omission skillfully, telling the tale of a man who made great art for a living.

As Steve writes, "In Mr. Williams's seventy-four years on this earth, his story has a lot of territory to cover...Most of the available biographical information doesn't dive beyond the surface and consists of a handful of articles and chapters in anthology-style biographies...Willams's years as a leader and the time he spent under the baton of Mercer Ellington has received scant coverage.

You can buy "Concerto for Cootie" here.

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Steve Bowie!

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, and so many more. He brings all this experience and knowledge to his book, combing through history, telling stories of his work, and analyzing how black music works rhythmically, melodically, and culturally.

As he writes, "Even when culturally sensitive people analyze Black music, and they are able to properly situate it in its cultural context, they still have to wrestle with Western cultural hierarchies and tussle with the Western musical tool set. This book is my effort to reset that dynamic, to wrestle out of its straitjacket that confines analysis of Black music. I analyze the music on its own terms, using tools I've uncovered and methods I've either discovered or had passed on to me."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Melvin Gibbs!

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 for education, because "noise music as a distinctive musical genre relies on the production of unique learning ecologies and vice versa." And Melilo's book looks at 20th century poetry through the lens of noise, "constructing a literary history of noise through poetic sound and performance...and tracing how poets figure noise in the disfiguration of poetic voice."

In our chat, Peter and John talk about how they approach something as abstract as noise through academic analysis, and how writing academic books is unique and challenging. Peter and John are both musicians themselves as well as show organizers, so they both bring more than just academic experience to the subject of noise.

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Peter J. Woods and John Melillo!

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, Vivienne Dick, Patti Smith, and so many more.

As she writes, "I wrote this book to dig deeper. What truly set No Wave apart from other artistic movements of the 1970s and early '80s? The women. They didn't just participate. They set the tone – and they lit the fuse...resisting tired stereotypes and reinventing according to our individual artistic visions...dismantling art's male-dominated paradigms, we ignored the boundaries of gender and genre."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Adele Bertei!

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 it bubbled up into the mainstream. "Parallel Lines" of course focuses on Blondie, but also on the context within which the group operated, particularly as punk was crossing with disco. "The Downtown Pop Underground" extends to many other musicians as well as poets, playwrights, actors, venues, organizers, and much more.

As McLeod writes in Parallel Lines, "Blondie was part of a social network of artists, musicians, intellectuals, and freaks who remade popular culture...Parallel Lines was the multiplatinum punctuation point on a slow-building subcultural explosion, a fuse that was lit in the early 1960s by a handful of outsiders living in the margins of New York City. Today, we inhabit a world that was conjured into existence by these downtown denizens."

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Kembrew McLeod!

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 effect on music in New York – groups such as Oneida, Parts and Labor, Weyes Blood, and Vagabon, and spaces such as Glasslands, Silent Bard, and Death by Audio.

As he writes, "This is a book about a dozen or so individuals and bands with a curious claim to fame. A few of them achieved a degree of renown; a few would nearly make it big, only to self-destruct; as of this writing, though, none is a household name. Yet what they did was more decisive for the culture of New York than billionaire philanthropists whose names were carved in concert halls, more enduring than bands with fifty times their sales."

You can buy "Us v. Them" here.

We hope you enjoy Marc's chat with Ronen Givony!