Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

This is a patrons-only episode. To hear the full interview, and many more episodes like it, go to Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons-only episode Jeremy and Tim talk about New York City in the 1970s with writer and academic Sharon Zukin. Sharon is a Professor of Sociology, teaching at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and the author of books including Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change, Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World, and Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places.

In this interview, Jeremy and Tim ask Sharon both about her research and her experiences as a public sector worker in New York City in the 1970s. They discuss changing patterns of cooperative housing and loft living in downtown Manhattan, the social and economic circulation within and between these various neighbourhoods, and the problems loft living presented. They also talk about the visual art scenes of the East Village and Soho, the pursuit of professional art careers within these spaces, the role of gender and race in how these opportunities were presented, and the incorporation of the avant-garde into the American establishment.

Tim, Jeremy and Sharon also discuss the work of David Harvey, Richard Nixon, suburbia, and scrutinise why the 1970s came to be so widely understood as a crisis decade.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tim and Jeremy return from a mini winter break with a second episode looking at the music and politics of the Downtown queer dance floors of the early 70s. They interrogate the position of the Stonewall Riot in the history of queer culture, exploring many of the historiographical problems latent in the received accounts of this period and recontextualising the gay liberation movement of the time within a broader set of radical, anti-imperial demands.

Tim and Jeremy also return to one of the most important clubs of the moment - the Sanctuary - and take a trip upstate to Fire Island Pines. Plus, Jem delivers a healthy dose of iconoclasm to a particularly beloved classic.    

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the whole thing, plus lectures on music and Marxism, Afrofuturism, Louis Vuitton, Fordism and more, become a patron by visiting Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

Tim also details Walter's studio craft, unpacking a number of his famous remixes, as well as his experiences cutting his live mixes to acetate.

Read Tim's original article is here:

https://www.timlawrence.info/articles2/2013/7/16/disco-madness-walter-gibbons-and-the-legacy-of-turntablism-and-remixology-journal-of-popular-music-studies-20-3-2008-276-329

Tracklist:

Compilations:

Books:

The is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear more, as well as many more episodes on Fordism, Afrofuturism, Walter Gibbons, Marx and more, become a patron by visiting Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

Thank you for all your support this year, it's been great to have you all along for the party. We'll be taking a short winter break, then the music is back on the platter early in January.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.  

In this week's episode Tim and Jeremy begin a three-part investigation into the music, politics and social practices of the downtown gay party scene in mid-70s New York City. The guys review the historiography of homosexual sexual activities, beginning with a refresher on Michel Foucault's analysis found in his History of Sexuality. Jeremy and Tim also cover Freud and the psychoanalytic account of sexuality (heavily critiqued by Foucault), broader questions around the creation of homosexual social identity, and how thinking around sexuality developed into the Fordist era.

In this patrons-only episode Tim takes the long view on Walter Gibbons: DJ, remixer, break-juggler, born-again Christian and seminal character in the LITM story. In part one, we hear about Walter's early life, the techniques he developed to extend tracks when DJing, and his early experiments in reel-to-reel editing.

https://www.timlawrence.info/articles2/2013/7/16/disco-madness-walter-gibbons-and-the-legacy-of-turntablism-and-remixology-journal-of-popular-music-studies-20-3-2008-276-329

Tracklist:

Compilations:

Books:

In this week's episode Jeremy and Tim flip the record for Side B of our examination of the 12" single. The guys consider what was going on in Dub culture and the format in the mid-70s, talk dubplate spec, and give the proper meaning to the dub discomix. They consider the appealing acoustic qualities of the 12" record, situate SalSoul within the story, and consider when the 12" single could be judged to have truly established itself. Plus, Walter Gibbons.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.  

Become a patron from £3pcm at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

Tracklist:

This is an excerpt from a patrons episode. To hear the full show, plus lectures on Fordism, Marxism and music, book readings, interviews and more, become a patron from £3pcm by visiting Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod

Tim and Jeremy play and discuss Malian Blues-inflected modern psychedelia, uncover devotional south Indian classical music, and try to pin down what Prog House is meant to mean. They select another slice of excellent contemporary ambience from show favourites International Anthem, introduce a new Afro House bootleg through Radio Mundo, and tie back to the main series with a new Walter Gibbons release. Plus, sunrise on Mount Sinai.

This is part of a rough series of more conversational, unplanned episodes reflecting on what's been on our record players recently and what we've been up to that we'll be releasing to patrons to say thank you for your support.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Be sure to visit our new website athttps://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/

Tune in, turn on, get down!

Tracklist:

Vieux Farka Toure and Khruangbin - Savanne

A major technological innovation to emerge from the milieu of NYC 1975 was the 12" single. In this episode, Jeremy and Tim uncover the demands of dancers and DJs in the discos for longer tracks, the precursors found in acid rock and Bob Dylan, and tell the story of individual releases that presaged widespread adoption of the 12" format.

Tim and Jeremy also talk album aesthetics, the Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields double A side, nascent remix culture, the importance of wide grooves, and return to a recurring character of the show: Tom Moulton.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.    

Tracklist:

This is a excerpt of a patrons-only episode. To become a patron from just £3pcm, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In the concluding episode of the mini-series, Jeremy completes his account of those Marxist academics and thinkers whose work either makes reference to music or can be brought to bear on it. Picking up in the 1950s, we hear about ways of understanding music's autonomous capacity to affect people's bodies and make them feel, desublimation, Structuralism and it's descendents, and vibe. Jeremy touches on the writing of Bloch, Marcuse, Freud, Barthes and Kristeva, as well as staples of the show Deleuze and Guattari. We hear about the 'grain' of the voice, the difference between the meaning and the material aspects of song, and finally return to the big question: what drives historical change?

Tracklist:

Pete Seeger - Which Side Are You On?

Books, articles etc:

#ACFM Podcast on folk music: https://novaramedia.com/2021/05/08/acfm-microdose-jeremy-gilbert-on-folk-music/