Marshall began creating his catchy, harmonically thick rock tunes in the early ’80s with six major label albums, but went indie in the ’90s to record four more as well as several EPs and live collections.

We discuss “Stranger and Stranger,” newly reworked for From the Hellhole (2025) but originally released on the Stranger and Stranger EP (2012), “Right On Time” from Jaggedland (2009), “Fantastic Planet of Love” from Life’s Too Short (1991), and we conclude by listening to Our Town” from Field Day (1983). Intro: “Someday, Someway” from Marshall Crenshaw (1982). More at marshallcrenshaw.com.

Hear all of “Someday, Someway,” and watch it live in 1982. One of his notable videos from back in the day was “Whenever You’re On My Mind.” See “Our Town” performed live, a live in-studio performance of “Stranger and Stranger,” and live “Fantastic Planet of Love.”

Watch him singing Buddy Holly tunes live with the actual Crickets (Buddy Holly’s backing band), and here he is in La Bamba. Hear that Dianne Warren tune he sang that we mention; reportedly she got mad at him for changing some lyrics. (Clearly he liked it enough at the time to perform it on Letterman.)

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Mark is joined by returning NEM guest Don Rauf (singer/songwriter from Life In a Blender), singer/songwriter/cartoonist David Heatley (featured on Mark’s other show Pretty Much Pop), and writer/musician Dave “Diggy” Dawson aka Dave Philpott (featured talking about his letters-to-popstars books on Pretty Much Pop). Our topic is humor in music. Is funny music necessarily less sincerely emotional, and so a failure at what music is supposed to do?

People are used to hearing songs from the singer’s perspective and might not realize that you’re playing a satirical character. How seriously do rock stars take their various ridiculous personas? An extreme persona can enable you to express something more interesting than a straight emotional recitation. Homages to various nostalgic styles (e.g. disco, metal, ’80s syntho) can in effect be musical jokes of a sort, but don’t have to imply that you’re laughing at that style (pretending to display an aesthetic is identical to actually displaying that aesthetic, your ambivalent intentions notwithstanding).

You can choose to watch this whole discussion unedited on YouTube, though you will in that case miss out on the music. Hear all of Life in a Blender’s “My Heart Your Sweat Does Feed” (2024) that leads off the audio. To conclude, we hear all of David Heatley’s “Blowing Off the World” (2023).

Some of the artists we refer to during the discussion include Frank Zappa, They Might Be Giants, Weird Al, Spinal Tap, Ian Dury, King Missile, The B-52s, Camper van Beethoven, The Dead Milkmen, GWAR, The Waitresses, Mac Sabbath, and The Anti-Nowhere League.

Here’s Peter Stampfel singing “Haunted Heart.” Here’s Mo Tucker singing in the Velvet Underground (see also Ringo). Listen to Iron Maiden’s “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter.” Listen to Jonathan Richman’s life “Ice Cream Man.” Listen to Jonathan Coulton’s “Baby Got Back.” Hear Richard Cheese sing “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The History of Punk on the Lower East Side. Genesis’ “Harold the Barrel.” The Fall’s “Oswald Defense Lawyer.”

Before Mark’s most famous, not-funny song “Things We Should Do” (2015) featured Lucy Lawless, there was an original-silly-lyric-version (though this mix was done afterwards, adding some weird effects and emphasizing parts of the backing that had been deleted or turned lower in the released version). Some other Mark novelty-ish songs include “Falsifiable,” “The Nipple Song,” “The Zoo Song,” “The Size of Luv,” “I Believe,” and “Minnesota Freak.”

Hear Mark’s NEM interview with DEVO’s Gerald V. Casale.

Follow @Heatley, @DonRauf, @derek_and_dave_philpott, and @MarkLinsenmayer.

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Singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Jonathan (currently based in Minneapolis) has been putting out indie rock solo albums since 1992, but has also ventured into traditional Finnish folk music and has multiple releases of tunes that I won’t call Christian rock, but more rock that grapples with being someone who goes to church.

We discuss “Diner by the Train” (and listen at the end to “Evidence”) from Waves (2025), “Home Unknown” from Look Up (2015), “Tape” from Recital (1997), and “Failing Rockstar Attempt” from Sound Theology (2000). Intro: “When I Get Bored” from 11 Years and 28 Days in the Yellow Room (1992) More at junathanrundman.com.

Hear all of the 2016 Walter Salas-Humara version of “Diner by the Train” (who co-wrote the song with Jonathan; Jonathan plays on this version. Watch Walter’s trio (including Jonathan) play this live. See young Jonathan in his video for “When I Get Bored.” Watch Jonathan’s current live band playing his recent single. “Let’s Put On an Opera.”

Watch him playing live Finnish folk music with Kaivama. Watch Kaivama playing “Home Unknown” live. Here he is playing harmonium. Watch a lyric video for Jonathan’s most popular song as we mention in the interview: “Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness.”

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Adrian has applied his distinctive, spacey dub mixing techniques to numerous recordings since 1978, often released under his On-U Sound label, and has effectively served as a key band member in groups like Creation Rebel, African Head Charge, Tackhead, and New Age Steppers. He has produced and/or remixed many artists including Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Sinéad O’Connor, and Spoon and has released nine albums under his own name since 2003.

We discuss “Body Roll” from The Collapse of Everything (2025), “Starship Bahia” from Survival & Resistance (2012), and “Sharp as a Needle” by Barmy Army from The English Disease (1989). End song: “Make Up Your Mind” by Coldcut (Ninja Tunes), On-U Sound, Ce’Cile, Toddla T, Adrian Sherwood from Outside the Echo Chamber (2017). Intro: “Movement in Space” by Creation Rebel from Starship Africa (1980), remixed for Adrian’s Five Decades of Destruction – 80’s (2024). More at adriansherwood.com.

Hear all of “Movement in Space.” Watch an animated video for “Dub Inspector” from the new album. Listen to “Swiftly (The Right One),” a track from the Creation Rebel 2023 reunion album. Watch Adrian live with that band in 2017. Watch him performing live solo in 2025; on his new tour, he plays with a band. Watch a full live DJ set from 2012. Here’s one of his tunes with Lee Scratch Perry. Here’s a tune he did with Sinéad O’Connor and others. Hear one of his remixes for Spoon. Watch Adrian muck around with his equipment.

Check out my interview with Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah from African Head Charge; Adrian is a co-writer and producer for all songs by that project.

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Eric was a major figure in the 1960s NYC folk scene, and his early tunes have been covered by Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and many others. He’s released 22 solo albums plus several live albums and two albums with The Band’s Rick Danko as Danko/Fjeld/Andersen.

We discuss “Don’t It Make You Wanna Sing the Blues” from Dance of Love and Death (2025), “Rain Falls Down in Amsterdam” from Memory of the Future (1998), and “Six Senses of Darkness” from Ghosts Upon the Road (1989). End song: “Time Run Like a Freight Train” from Stages: The Lost Album (recorded 1973). Intro: “Violets of Dawn” from ‘Bout Changes and Things (1966). More at ericandersen.com.

Hear all of “Violets of Dawn” and his version for the 1967 European re-recording of that album. Here’s what it sounds like in his current voice.

His other really big hit was “Thirsty Boots.” Here’s the same song sung by Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, John Denver, and The Kingston Trio. Here he is singing it in 1985 with a lot of harmonies.

Hear the earlier (2007?), live version of “Don’t It Make You Wanna Sing the Blues.” Watch him sing it live in 2020. Another particularly strong tune from the new album is “Troubled Angel.” Here’s the title track, and here’s the political tune we mention.

Watch a more recent, live take on “Rain Falls Down in Amsterdam” with more dense instrumentation. From that same era, listen to him do a duet with Lou Reed. He’s also recorded some recent albums related to literature, including an EP about Camus; listen to “The Plague.”

His biggest hit from his early ’70s post-folk period was “Blue River.” As he describes at the end of the interview, it was the album right after that which was “lost,” though some tunes were then re-recorded; hear the 1975 version of “Time Run Like a Freight Train.” Another tune from that lost album I particularly like is “Lie With Me.”

One of the better songs from the “Exiles” period in the ’80s we talk about near the end of the interview is “Messiah.” One of the more “80s” tunes from that era (with a big hook and horns, but no obvious synths) was “Tight in the Night.”

The (co-written) song “with a hook” I referred to from the 1989 album is “Too Many Times (I Will Try).” Just after that album he did the collaborations with Rick Danko; the big song from that was “Driftin’ Away.” Here they are singing it on TV, and here he is singing it live with his own band in the early ’90s.

Watch this other interview with Eric that prepared me to talk with him.

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This is an in memoriam reissue of a 2022 episode with a newly recorded introduction by Mark (your host, not the guest).

Mark Stewart led the Pop Group through two albums in the late 70s two later reunion album and has released nine solo albums of trippy, experimental dance music. We discuss “Rage of Angels” (feat. Front 242) from VS (2022), “Age of Miracles” by The Pop Group from Citizen Zombie (2015), and “Liberty City” by Mark Stewart & the Maffia from Learning to Cope with Cowardice (1983). End song: “Cast No Shadow (Leather Strip Mix)” by Mark Stewart, Stephen Mallinder, and Eric Random from VS (2022). Intro: “She Is Beyond Good and Evil” by The Pop Group from Y (1979). More at markstewartmusic.com.

Watch the videos for “Rage of Angels” and “Cast No Shadow.” Another collaboration on that album is with Lee “Scratch” Perry. Watch a live gig with The Maffia from 1985.

“She Is Beyond Good and Evil” had a video too. One of their other big songs is “We Are All Prostitutes.” Here’s The Pop Group live in 1980 and 2016.

Photo by Chiara Meattelli and Dominic Lee.

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Maia has released ten lush, Americana-influenced singer-songwriter albums since 1997 and has collaborated with artists like Art Garfunkel, Bonnie Raitt, and Trisha Yearwood, and been covered by Cher, Paul Carrack, etc.

We discuss “Counterintuition” (and listen to the title track) from Tomboy (2025), “Phoenix” from The Dash Between the Dates (2015), and “A Home” from Fine Upstanding Citizen (2005) (co-written with her father Randy Sharp and popularized in a cover version by The Chicks). Intro: “I Need This to Be Love” from Hardly Glamour (1997). More at maiasharp.com.

Watch the video for “Tomboy”, and a new lyric for another new song, “Only Lucky.” Hear all of “I Need This to Be Love.” Another single of hers that I really like is “Kind.”

Watch her perform a full solo set. Watch her perform with Bonnie Raitt and with Art Garfunkel. Here’s the song Maia wrote that was recorded by Cher. Watch Maia pitching her NYU songwriting classes.

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…OK, maybe not his ending, but it’s a late career boost into overdrive: This 66-year-old has been making music since the ’80s, but you’re only going to find two of his releases on the streaming services right now, and only this new album (released 20 years after the previous one) has the polish to count as a world-conquering, professional release.

We discuss two songs from this new album Diner of Doubt: “My Dead Friend,” and “I Have a Lotta Dreams,” then look back to “Build Another One” from Might Could Have (2004) (The Intro, “Chinese Lights,” is also from that album). End song: “Oh Dee Oh Oh” (recorded 2023, making its debut release here).

Learn more at teetempleton.com. Tee has created videos (apparently not using AI!) for most songs from the new album, watch them at youtube.com/@TeeTempleton.

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New York singer-songwriter Willie has released sixteen albums since 1980. He has opened for The Who and Bruce Springsteen, among others, but rejected the major label life after his first two albums.

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We discuss “An Irish Goodbye” (feat. Paul Brady) from The Great Yellow Light (2025) (and listen at the end to “Wake Up, America” feat. Steve Earle from that album), “Cell Phones Ringing (In the Pockets of the Dead)” from Streets of New York (2006), and the title track from Places I Have Never Been (1991) (co-written with Richard Chertoff and Jim Cobb). Intro music: “Vagabond Moon” from Willie Nile (1980).

Hear all of “Vagabond Moon.” Watch “Cell Phones” ringing live, and “Places I Have Never Been” live. Watch the video for “Wake Up, America.” Watch Willie on Letterman in 1991. Watch him solo acoustic, and he sings solo piano ballads too.

We mention Willie’s collaborations with The Hooters: Here’s Willie’s new version of “Washington’s Day,” and The Hooters’ old version. He just co-wrote their new song “Pendulum”; here he is performing it with them.

Here’s that interview about Irish cultural influence with Larry Kirwan that we mentioned.

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Not only is John a multi-instrumentalist (e.g. mandolin and flute) who’s played with Violent Femmes, Allen Ginsberg, Hal Willner, John Prine, The Meat Puppets, et al, but he’s released around 24 albums as a solo artist or with several groups including the NYC world music outfit TriBeCaStan. He’s also a poet and author.

We discuss “(Be Careful What You Say to) An Armed Lady” by Folklorkestra from A Strange Day in June (2023), the title track from Forever Ago (with La Società del Musici) (2018), “Bed Bugs” by TriBeCaStan from New Deli (2012), and listen to “Back Country” by The Electric Chairmen from Toast (1995), which features members of Camper van Beethoven. Intro: “Grim Reaper’s Song” from Midnight Snack (1986) (which features Violent Femmes’ Brian Richie on bass). More at kruthworks.com, johnkruth.bandcamp.com, and (for TriBeCaStan) at evergreene.bandcamp.com.

Hear all of “Grim Reaper’s Song.” Watch TriBeCaStan live with John on sitar, and here’s a whole live set. Watch the video for Waiting by the Window, another key track from Forever Ago. Here he is on banjo. Here he is live with The Illustrious Ancestors. Watch him playing flute with The Blues Project.

Here he is with Noodle Shop (feat. Jonathan Segel from Camper van Beethoven) and Elliot Sharp. We refer to Folklorkestra’s “A Pair of Boleros.” Watch a short documentary about John. Watch him talking about a recent book he wrote. Here are more videos that John has posted.

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