Rock 'n' Roll Grad School

Paul Rappaport has had a fascinating career in the music industry that has led him to crossing paths with some of the most important musicians of the last century. Folks like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. 

Now Rapp (as he's known to his friends) tells all the stories with his new book "Gliders Over Hollywood," and it's one fun ride. We sat down with Rapp to talk about all of this and, maybe get to the bottom of this whole Pink Floyd/Enigma thing?

"Gliders Over Hollywood" is available April 15th, wherever you get your books. 

Queen's fourth record, "A Night at the Opera," was the one that set them apart from the rest. A rock album unlike any others, with all the various tricks and treats that have become part of the Queen style, is now celebrating it's 50th anniversary.

Author Gillian G. Gaar has written a great new book, filled with fascinating information about the making of the album and brimming with amazing photographs from the era. "Queen & A Night at the Opera- 50 Years" is available right now from Motorbooks.

This is a special one for Heidi. She talks with Jon Magidsohn, author of a new book about her favorite band- Crowded House. Part of the "On Track" series by Sonic Bond Publishing, Magidsohn does exactly what is says on the cover- break down every Crowded House song. (And he does so with the help of an interview with Neil Finn to provide some of the answers.)

"Crowded House: On Track" by John Magidsohn is available right now wherever you get your books. For more information, check out Sonic Bond Publishing's website.

This week, we talk with one of the members of Sex-O-Rama. (What's his real name? What's his band name... we find out!) The group was originally formed to create fake porn music for folks to enjoy and, shockingly, things got out of hand and now they're onto volume 5.

Sex-O-Rama volume 5: Invaders from the Pleasure Planet is available wherever you get your music. For more information, check out their website.

Don Airey is metal royalty. He has played with some of the greatest artists ever and on songs you've heard thousands of times. With his newest solo record Pushed to the Edge, Don gathered some of his incredibly talented friends to make a real blast of a record that shows his great skill as a writer and, most importantly, as a musician.

Pushed to the Edge comes out March 28th. For more information and to find out where to get a copy, check out Don's Facebook page.

You know how we feel about the Mael brothers and their band Sparks. So it was with great delight that we heard about Chris Sutton's new book, "Sparks 1969-1979: Every Album, Every Song" from Sonicbond Publishing. In the book, Chris takes a detailed look at the first decade of this incredibly influential band.

For more information, check out the Sonicbond Publishing website, and order your copy wherever you get your books.

Ellis Mano Band is a Swiss band, who have been making music in various guises for decades. With their most recent album, they again use their skills to craft quality rock. (And it's not just us saying that- they opened for Deep Purple last summer.)

Their new record Morph is available now wherever you get your music. For more information, check out their website.

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This week it's another installment in "Tribute: A Tribute to Tributes," where we discuss another tribute album. This time it's one of the most 90's tributes ever made- featuring Liz Phair, Sublime, Sponge, Matthew Sweet and the Butthole Surfers, "Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits."

LA-based prog band Final Gravity has released a new EP and are promising a 2025 full of music. We talked with Mike Clark about the recording process and the love of prog rock bringing everyone together.

You can download the new EP, Stormchaser, as well as their other releases on Band Camp and you can follow the band on Facebook.

We get to sit down again with the great John McCutcheon. On top of being an amazing song writer, John is also a fascinating guy to talk with. We talk about the writing of his newest record, "Field of Stars," and new songs he's written about all sorts of things including Hank Aaron and the MS St Louis.

For more information including tour dates, check out John's website.