On this episode, Marc talks to Will Hermes, author of “Lou Reed: The King of New York” released on October 3rd, 2023. It’s a thorough yet highly entertaining biography of the legendary musician, who Will depicts as a figure with so many sides and so many pursuits, who really can never be reduced down to a single personality, a single motivation, or a single classification.

As Will writes in his introduction, “If you’re hoping for some neat totalizing statement or psychological profile to explain Reed, to fix him like a butterfly specimen, you won’t find it here. Somewhat vexing for a biographer, if thrillingly for a fan, Reed was a shapeshifter who represented–lived–the potentialities of identity without apology, one reason why he remains such a complicated figure.”

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Will!

On this episode, Marc talks with Thurston Moore, author of “Sonic Life: A Memoir,” released today, October 24, 2023. It’s a fascinating story of Moore’s journey through music as a creator and a fan, from his early days discovering records with his older brother, to the end of his longtime band Sonic Youth. It's also a history of the music that surrounded and inspired him, with so many great stories about some of the amazingly creative people he’s met along the way.

We hope you enjoy Marc's talk with Thurston!

And if you're interested in Marc's new book "High Bias: The Distorted History of The Cassette Tape," check out highbiasbook.com and highbiasbook.bandcamp.com. Thanks!

On this episode, our host Marc Masters is the subject, talking about his new book "High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape," released in October of 2023.  It’s a technical and cultural history of the cassette tape format, charting the many ways that cassettes changed the course of music and brought new possibilities and new kinds of freedom to creators and listeners–tape artists, bootleg traders, mixtape makers, international tape hunters, current tape labels, and more.

To talk about how he put the book together, Marc invited writer Jesse Jarnow to be this episode's guest interviewer. Jesse is the author of great histories of Yo La Tengo (“Big Day Coming”), The Weavers (“Wasn’t That A Time"), and a “Biography of Psychedelic America” called "Heads," and he's currently working on a book that includes an exploration of the cassette tape as well. 
 
Jesse is also the co-host of the Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast, which you can find here: https://www.dead.net/deadcast

We hope you enjoy Marc's talk with Jesse!

To order a copy of "High Bias" direct from Marc, as well as a companion tape of music from labels featured in the book, go to highbiasbook.bandcamp.com. Thanks!

On this episode, Marc talks with Lior Phillips, author of “South African Popular Music,” released in May of 2023. It's one of the first installments in 33.3's “Genre" series–an extensively researched, information packed narrative covering many different styles of South African music, from stars like Miriam Makeba and Johnny Clegg, to artists little known outside of the country.

As Lior writes, “My greatest hope is that by diving deep into the popular music of South Africa, the ways in which African music inspires nearly all of modern music, and the astounding history of the apartheid era, this book may help elucidate those concentric circle of art and politics, grief and rejoicing, that permeate the world at large.”

We hope you enjoy Marc's talk with Lior!

And if you're interested in Marc's forthcoming book "High Bias: The Distorted History of The Cassette Tape," out October 3 on UNC Press, check out highbiasbook.com and highbiasbook.bandcamp.com. Thanks!

On this episode, Marc talks to Jeff Schwartz, author of “Free Jazz,” published in April of 2023. It’s a smart survey of free jazz that’s structured not around individual artists but more around aspects of free jazz, with chapter titles such as "Energy", "Spirituality", and "Self-Determination."

As Jeff writes, “Few pieces or artists will fall neatly into one chapter…There is no discography or recommended listening list at the end of this book. The goal is to suggest things to listen for rather than what to listen to.”

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Jeff!

On this episode, Marc talks with John Szwed, author of “Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith,” published in August of 2023. It’s a fascinating and superbly skillful portrait of a man who played so many roles: anthropologist, archivist, musicologist, filmmaker, painter. He's best known for his massively influential Anthology of American Folk Music, but he did so much more. Szwed takes a figure who is so hard to pin down and crafts a real story without losing all the mystery of his life and work.

As John writes in his introduction,“How are we to understand the paradox of an artist whose life was almost completely outside the public’s view, always on the edge of calamity–if not death–and yet so influential in so many ways?”

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

On this episode, Marc talks to Clifford Allen, author of “Singularity Codex: Matthew Shipp on Rogue Art,” published in August of 2023. It focuses on the 25 releases pianist Matthew Shipp has been involved in for the Rogue Art label, while also functioning as a biography of Shipp as well as a history of the free jazz scene he’s been involved in in New York since the late 1980s.

As Clifford explains in his introduction, “[this book]’s purpose is to take a 25-disc slice of Shipp’s universe as a microcosm of the larger world of creative music and explore the mutable interactions between history, current practices, and ideas through the lens of on pianist, his various playing partners, and others who have helped realize this work.”

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Clifford!

On this episode, Marc talks to Audrey Golden, author of “I Thought I Heard You Speak: Woman At Factory Records,” published in June of 2023. It’s a fascinating oral history of the legendary UK record label told exclusively by women involved in at all levels. Golden talked to nearly 100 individuals for her book, from people who ran the office, to people who managed the bands, to people who promoted the music, to people who worked at the label’s nightclub, the Hacienda, and so much more.

As she writes in her introduction, “I set out to do two things: to create an innovative historical record of Factory and its cultural influences, and to collate an archive of women’s experiential knowledge in all its vast, varied, and anecdotal complexity.”

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Audrey!

On this episode, Marc talks to Eric Harvey, author of “ Who Got the Camera? A History of Rap and Reality,” published in October of 2021. It’s a fascinating investigation into how rap music in the 80s and 90s intersected with the rise of reality TV and tabloid news - as Eric once put it, “(when) the news was getting more entertaining…and rap was becoming more informational.”

Eric covers so much ground in this book, dissecting some of the best and most important hip-hop of the time while connecting it to so much that was going on politically and culturally throughout those years.

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Eric!

On this episode, Marc talks to Kerry O'Brien and Will Robin, co-editors of “On Minimalism: Documenting a Musical Movement,” published in April of 2023. It's an anthology of writings on the modern musical style known as minimalism, presenting essays, interviews, reviews, and more. There are over 100 documents included in “On Minimalism,” organized chronologically but also grouped under themes such as “Dream Music,” “Altered States,” and “Gurus and Teachers.” 

As Kerry and Will write in the book’s introduction, “It’s a retelling of the history of musical minimalism - a revisionist history…Who was there? What did it sound like? How was it described? And what is missing from how it was remembered?”

We hope you enjoy Marc's conversation with Kerry and Will!