The Tonearm

This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on author David Perlis. David grew up in Marin County and co-hosted Night People on WFMU.

His first book, Morning in Marin, is out now. It follows characters including Alan Watts, the Grateful Dead, George Lucas, Philip K. Dick and many others through America's postwar creative boom.

We talk about why he traded fiction for the true story, the letters of Gary Snyder and Alan Watts, and why young artists struggle to find a foothold in Marin today.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Bola Sete's The Kitchen Tapes, Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales's Hooteroll?, and Carlos Santana's Santana Brothers, each featuring a different song called "Morning in Marin")

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Dig Deeper

Author and Book:

• Visit David Perlis at daveperlis.substack.com and listen to Night People on WFMU
• Purchase Morning in Marin: Zen, Drugs, and Ewoks on the California Coast from Heyday or Bookshop.org

Coverage:

• The Long Reach of the "Marinaissance" (KQED Forum)
• A new book uncovers Marin's essential role in the counterculture movement (7x7)
• Kirkus review

People and Places:

• Elsa Gidlow and Druid Heights
• Alan Watts
• The ferryboat Vallejo
• Anna Halprin (Tamalpa Institute)
• Gary Snyder Papers (UC Davis Library)
• Lew Welch
• Elizabeth Terwilliger (Marin History Museum)
• Art Clokey and Gumby Dharma
• The WELL

The Three "Morning in Marin" Recordings:

• Bola Sete, The Kitchen Tapes
• Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales, Hooteroll?
• Carlos Santana, Santana Brothers

From The Tonearm:

• Jorma and Vanessa Kaukonen (Spotlight On)
• Jack Casady (Spotlight On)
• Grateful Dead, New York, NY, September 20, 1988
• Grateful Dead, New York, NY, September 13, 1991

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• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on trumpeter, composer, and synthesist Mark Isham. He's out now with At the Carousel Club, his first solo album in fifteen years, built around vintage analog synthesizers and a band that includes Nels Cline, Vinnie Colaiuta, and a string quartet.

We talk about where the album's title comes from, his history with David Sylvian, and what it was like hearing the finished record on vinyl after sixteen hours of sessions.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Mark Isham's At The Carousel Club)

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Artist and Album:

• Visit Mark Isham at isham.com and follow on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook
• Purchase At the Carousel Club from the Mark Isham store, Bandcamp, or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice.

The Band:

• Nels Cline
• Vinnie Colaiuta
• Kaveh Rastegar
• Ayo Awosika
• Orchid Quartet
• Wilco

Musical References:

• Weather Report, I Sing the Body Electric
• Friedrich Gulda
• Sonny Sharrock
• Bach, Mass in B minor

Film:

• Never Cry Wolf (1983), directed by Carroll Ballard

Trumpet Players and Builders:

• Doc Severinsen
• David Monette
• Maynard Ferguson
• Arturo Sandoval
• Wynton Marsalis

Bay Area:

• Cal Tjader
• Merl Saunders
• Jon Faddis
• John Coppola

David Sylvian:

• David Sylvian
• Brilliant Trees (1984)
• Holger Czukay
• Kenny Wheeler
• Jon Hassell

Jazz Collaborators:

• Horace Silver
• Charles Lloyd

The Next Generation:

• Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (Christian Scott)
• Keyon Harrold
• Theo Croker

From The Tonearm:

• Nels Cline: Tales of a Daunted Guitarist (The Tonearm Podcast)
• OK Bloomers — Nels Cline Finds His Happy Place

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• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on famed record producer Bob Ezrin.

Bob has worked with artists including Pink Floyd, KISS, Deep Purple, and countless others, though he is best known for his nearly 60-year relationship with Alice Cooper.

He's back working with The Jayhawks on their latest, Sanctuary Park, twenty-six years after their first project together.

We talk about how the reunion started with an offhand remark from Gary Louris, both men leaving the United States for Canada around the same time, and we talk a lot about the craft of record production.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are The Jayhawks - "What Led Me To This Town" and "Mr. Lincoln," Alice Cooper - "I'm Eighteen," and Tim Curry - "Sloe Gin")

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Producer:

• Bob Ezrin at Primary Wave, and his Governor General's Performing Arts Award citation
• Ezrin's production credits on AllMusic
• "It started to feel a bit too much like Europe in the 1930s" — Ezrin on leaving Nashville for Toronto, Toronto Life
• "My job was to get rid of Alice Cooper, and I did exactly the opposite" — Louder
• Ezrin on the producer's "applause meter" — Performing Songwriter

Artist and Album:

• Visit the Jayhawks at jayhawksofficial.com and follow on Instagram and Facebook
• Purchase the Jayhawks' Sanctuary Park from Bandcamp or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice.
• The Jayhawks perform songs from Sanctuary Park in The Current's studio
• "Mr. Lincoln" and the Ford's Theatre story behind it — AudioFuzz
• Review of Sanctuary Park — Americana Highways

Gary Louris:

• Visit Gary Louris at garylourismusic.com
• Gary Louris on his Canadian love story — Rolling Stone

The First Time Around:

• Smile at twenty — Albumism
• Smile credits on Discogs
• An interview with Josh Sarubin, the A&R who first sent Ezrin to Minneapolis — The Looking List

Places:

• Canterbury Music Co., Toronto, where Sanctuary Park was recorded, and the studio's closing announcement

Musical References:

• Alice Cooper at alicecooper.com, and the Killer and School's Out deluxe editions
• Kiss celebrate fifty years of Destroyer — uDiscover Music
• The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and its history — American Songwriter
• Rosalía

—

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on noted reggae author David Katz.

His new book, Dub Revolution: Jamaica's Sonic Innovators and the Birth of Remix Culture, traces Jamaican music from its earliest sound systems to the 21st century.

We talk about the 1982 San Francisco night that blew David’s mind and opened his ears, the job that paid his way to London, and even the technology and tools the dub greats used.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are Lee “Scratch” Perry - "Dub Revolutions," King Tubby - "King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown," and Scientist - "Scientific" )

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Author and Book:

• Visit David Katz at davidkatzreggae.com and follow Dub Me Always on Instagram and Facebook
• Purchase Dub Revolution: Jamaica's Sonic Innovators and the Birth of Remix Culture from White Rabbit, Hachette, or Bookshop
• DJ Mag on the book's publication
• Katz's production, annotation, and compilation credits on Discogs

The Architects of Dub:

• The Strange World Of… King Tubby — The Quietus
• King Tubby's first authorised biography — The Wire
• The life of Lee "Scratch" Perry through the lens of Dennis Morris — DJ Mag
• Scientist on Bandcamp, and at length on his methods in Tape Op
• King Jammy Legacy
• U-Roy — Perfect Sound Forever
• Augustus Pablo and Rockers International

Engineers and Players:

• Hedley Jones: The Renaissance Man Who Pioneered Jamaican Soundsystem Culture — Red Bull Music Academy Daily
• Hedley Jones obituary — The Wire
• Thirteen classics from Philip Smart's HC&F Studio — LargeUp
• Remembering Joseph Hoo Kim — The Vinyl Factory
• Roy Cousins and the Royals
• Peter Chemist

Studios and Sound Systems:

• Ten essential Coxsone Dodd productions — Grammy.com
• Soul Jazz's Studio One reissue catalogue
• Channel One Studios
• Maxfield Avenue: The Story of Channel One and the Sound That Defined Roots Reggae — Bass Culture
• Stanley Motta, whose downtown Kingston appliance store was selling sound systems by 1939

Dub in Britain:

• The unsung genius of dub innovator Dennis Bovell — The Vinyl Factory; and Dennis Bovell on Bandcamp
• Dennis Bovell on The Tonearm
• Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound
• Adrian Sherwood on The Tonearm
• Ariwa Sounds, Mad Professor's south London studio
• Dread Broadcasting Corporation
• Lepke, DBC's founder, remembered — The Wire
• Mark Lusardi

Radio and Discovery:

• Doug Wendt's Midnight Dread
• Midnight Dread #13, KTIM-FM San Rafael, March 31, 1980 — the show Katz taped off his bedside clock radio

Records Mentioned:

• Wailing Souls, Fire House Rock
• Johnny Clarke, "I Don't Want To Be A Rude Boy" — the B side is "Rude Boy Dub"

Further Reading:

• Michael E. Veal, Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae
• Isis Semaj-Hall, the Jamaican academic Katz quotes in his introduction
• In Search of the First Dub LP — Red Bull Music Academy Daily

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• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Ann Arbor krautrock band Fling ii.

I sat down with drummer and synthesist Brad Gowland, and guitarist Richard Murphy, to chat about their third album, 3, which is out now on We Are Busy Bodies. It’s six tracks cut down from hours of studio jamming.

We talk about Richard's path from ambient guitar to doom metal, Brad finding four minutes inside a fifty-minute take, and how a Magic: The Gathering card - and a commune breakup - inspired the band’s name.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Fling ii’s 3)

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Fling ii:

• Visit Fling ii on Bandcamp, where the full catalog lives
• Purchase 3 from We Are Busy Bodies, Bandcamp, or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choice.
• 2 (2024), the record that introduced Dave Van Dusen's pedal steel — Bandcamp
• The self-titled debut (2022), seven tracks from the band's first weekend at Willis Sound — Bandcamp
• The debut's 2024 vinyl reissue on Italy's Black Sweat Records, distributed by Forced Exposure

The Studio and the Label:

• Willis Sound — the converted church in Willis, Michigan where every Fling ii record has been made
• We Are Busy Bodies, the Toronto label behind 3 — and Exclaim!'s interview with founder Eric Warner on the label's first twenty years
• The label's roster on Bandcamp

Elsewhere in the Band:

• Sif, Richard Murphy's instrumental doom project, which Brad Gowland produces and programs drums for

Musical References:

• Neu!'s "Hallogallo" — the track Richard played Brad in high school, and the founding reference point for the band
• Earth's The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull (Southern Lord, 2008), the ambient half of Brad's original pitch — also on Bandcamp
• Elder, the stoner-metal band whose turn to unqualified krautrock Richard cites
• Blood Incantation's Timewave Zero, the synth record Brad keeps returning to
• Water Damage, the Austin group whose In E the live show came to resemble
• Amon Düül II, whose split from their parent commune gave the band its name
• Osees, whose cover art set the visual template

Scenes and Support:

• R. Solomon, the goth synth-pop act who shared the Ann Arbor bill
• Ryan Spencer, the Detroit DJ and producer whose new project closed the show
• New Orleans Synth Cult, the collective Richard describes playing laundromats — also on Instagram

Read More:

• RetroFuturista's August 2026 interview with Brad Gowland, on motorik, pedal steel, and recording at Willis Sound
• Fifteen Questions: Fling ii about krautrock

Elsewhere on The Tonearm:

• Suzanne Ciani: The Buchla's Orchestral Homecoming — the episode Brad name-checks at the close, and its companion article, Speaking the Word of the Buchla

—

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on producer and engineer Martin Bisi.

Bisi has run BC Studio out of the Gowanus section of Brooklyn since 1981, recording Sonic Youth, Swans, Herbie Hancock's "Rockit," and countless others.

We discussed his new album, Dancing On The Power Lines, his ongoing community activism, the changing landscape of New York's music scene, and so much more. It’s a good one.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Martin Bisi's Dancing On The Power Lines)

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Artist and Album:

• Visit Martin Bisi at martinbisi.com and follow on YouTube and Facebook
• Purchase Dancing On The Power Lines from Bandcamp or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• BC Studio — established 1981, Gowanus, Brooklyn
• Previous release: Your Ultimate Urban Fantasy EP (2024)
• BC35: The 35 Year Anniversary of BC Studio

Live:

• The Martin Bisi Ensemble plays Sure We Can recycling center in Brooklyn, Sunday, September 13, 3–7 pm

Collaborators:

• Nora Almeida — writer, performance artist, and activist who wrote about half the lyrics on the album, including "CubeSmart Sunset"
• Almeida's Last Street End in Gowanus (2021), the public artwork behind the street-end conversation
• The Last Street End of Gowanus by the Autonomous People of Gowanus — Martin Bisi Collective, on Sleeping Giant Glossolalia
• Joan Hacker (voice, synth)
• Diego Ferri (bass, baritone guitar) and Oliver Rivera Drew (drums), the Berlin chapter of Bisi's band

Gowanus:

• Voice of Gowanus — the all-volunteer group Bisi belongs to, advocating for a cleanup fully protective of human health
• Arts Gowanus — the arts advocacy organization he says conceded they hadn't thought about music
• Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club — Lawrence Peryer's old paddling club
• Powerhouse Arts — the converted power plant at 322 Third Avenue

Venues:

• Lowlands — 543 Third Avenue, live music Mondays and Tuesdays
• Mama Tried, Brooklyn
• Max Fish, formerly of Ludlow Street

Musical References:

• Genre Is Death — the Brooklyn duo Bisi recorded at BC Studio
• Glenn Branca's Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City) for 100 Guitars — reviewed after its June 12, 2026 performance at David Geffen Hall, conducted by Reg Bloor, the first New York performance since the 2001 premiere at World Trade Center Plaza
• Kevin Sun on The Tonearm Podcast
• Herbie Hancock, "Rockit," and Grand Mixer D.ST
• Martin Bisi: NYC Producer & Sonic Youth Engineer - Tape Op

Documentary:

• Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio — directed by Sara Leavitt and Ryan C. Douglass

—

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on tenor saxophonist Azar Lawrence.

Lawrence is a veteran of Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner's bands and a leader of his own group, The Azar Lawrence Experience, whose new album, Turn the Music Up, arrives September 25th.

We talk about his unique relationship with Pharoah Sanders, dodging McCoy Tyner’s broken piano strings, and how the fifty years between the first and latest recordings of his own songs trace his evolution as a musician.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Azar Lawrence’s Turn The Music Up)

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Artist and Album:

• Visit Azar Lawrence at azarlawrence.com and follow on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
• Turn the Music Up (Trazar Records, September 25, 2026) — artist shop
• Discography and video — Lawrence's own catalog page, as leader and sideman
• Shadow Dancing — the 1985 Riza album, reissued by Light in the Attic
• Bridge into the New Age — the 1974 Prestige debut, with cover art by his brother Vincent Collier

The Cookers:

• The Cookers — the collective he joined alongside Billy Hart, Cecil McBee, George Cables, and Eddie Henderson
• Azar Lawrence at The Cookers
• David Weiss — trumpeter and the band's organizer, who also sat in with Lawrence's group on the West Coast

Mentors and Collaborators:

• McCoy Tyner — five and a half years in the band, and the subject of the acoustic-piano argument
• Atlantis — the 1974 Tyner album recorded live at Keystone Korner with Lawrence in the group; TALE's version of the title track opens side two of the new record
• Elvin Jones — NEA Jazz Master profile of the drummer who gave Lawrence his first major gig
• Dark Magus — Miles Davis, recorded live at Carnegie Hall on March 30, 1974, the night Lawrence was called to the stage without warning
• Woody Shaw — the trumpeter from the after-hours group with George Cables, Larry Gales, and Candy Finch

Pharoah Sanders:

• Pharoah Sanders — NEA Jazz Master profile
• Karma — the 1969 Impulse! album containing "The Creator Has a Master Plan," which Lawrence covers on Turn the Music Up as a tribute
• "The Creator Has a Master Plan" — background on the Sanders–Leon Thomas composition

Los Angeles Roots:

• Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra — Horace Tapscott's ensemble, Lawrence's entry into the L.A. scene
• Horace Tapscott — pianist, organizer, and the Arkestra's founder
• The Lighthouse Café — the Hermosa Beach club where Lawrence first spent time around Sanders
• Concerts by the Sea — Howard Rumsey's Redondo Beach room, 1971–1985, the other place they would go to hear him

Spiritual Study:

• Alfred and Bernice Ligon — the Aquarian Book Shop and Aquarian Spiritual Center, where Lawrence studied
• Alfred Ligon obituary — on the country's oldest Black-owned bookstore, opened in 1941 and destroyed in 1992

Venues:

• Village Vanguard — where the line ran out the door for Tyner's band, and where McCoy sat in with Elvin on his birthday
• NN North Sea Jazz Festival — where Cecil McBee joined Lawrence's quintet

Teaching:

• UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Global Jazz Studies — where Lawrence has taught since 2024

—

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Florida sound artist Josh Mason.

Mason’s new album, Kicking A Dark Horse, is out now on greyfade as a hardcover book paired with modular synthesizer music, the two built to zipper together rather than stand apart.

We talk about the punk rock roots underneath all that circuitry, why only the album's first and last tracks have a fixed place, and what Cortázar's Hopscotch has to do with any of it.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Josh Mason's Kicking A Dark Horse)

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Artist and Album:

• Visit Josh Mason at joshmason.info and follow on Instagram and Bandcamp
• Purchase Kicking A Dark Horse — Bandcamp (FOLIO hardcover + digital)
• European orders — Soundohm
• Kicking A Dark Horse — full catalog page, credits, and press

Label and Format:

• greyfade
• The FOLIO format — greyfade's hardcover book music edition; Kicking A Dark Horse is the third release
• Josh Mason's greyfade artist page
• greyfade listening platform

Collaborators:

• Joseph Branciforte — greyfade founder, co-producer, mastering engineer, and FOLIO interior designer
• "In Conversation: Josh Mason & Joseph Branciforte" — the long-form interview at Branciforte's Patch Notes, covering the gear, the writing, and the punk ethos in Mason's own words

Instruments and Method:

• Xaoc Devices Leibniz subsystem — the binary-logic modular system the record was built on, which Mason has called "the final boss… in terms of instrument design that made no sense to me"

Literary References:

• Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar — the 1963 novel with an alternate scrambled reading order, translated by Gregory Rabassa
• The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson — the 1969 "book in a box," 27 unbound sections with only the first and last fixed
• How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy — the songwriting book Lawrence cites on writing by removal

Art References:

• Mark Rothko at Tate Modern — the Rothko Room, hung according to the artist's own lighting stipulations: "The light, whether natural or artificial, should not be too strong"

Selected Press for Kicking A Dark Horse:

• IGLOO
• PopMatters
• Brainwashed
• Textura
• 15 Questions
• Foxy Digitalis

—

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

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• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on drummer, composer, and educator Terri Lyne Carrington.

Carrington has just released Trip the Night Fantastic, the second album from her group, Social Science. It’s built for the dance floor but unflinching on the topics of deportation, prison abolition, and climate collapse.

We talk about trusting collaborators before they've earned it, playing to a rare, fully attentive crowd at Newport, and calling herself a "frustrated drummer" on a record built from words as much as rhythm.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Trip the Night Fantastic, the new album from Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science.)

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Artist and Album:

• Visit Terri Lyne Carrington at terrilynecarrington.com and follow on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Bandcamp
• Purchase Trip the Night Fantastic from Candid Records, Bandcamp, or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choice.
• Candid Records

Social Science:

• Aaron Parks — piano; wrote "Climate Song"
• Matthew Stevens — guitar; proposed the album's title phrase and wrote the "Solidarity Song" riff
• Morgan Guerin — multi-instrumentalist and the album's co-producer

"Riddim Song" Collaborators:

• Fatoumata Diawara
• Debo Ray
• Brenda Navarrete

"Blues Song" and June Jordan:

• June Jordan — the poet's official site
• "These Poems" — the poem set to music on the album
• aja monet — the surrealist blues poet who performs it

Related Recordings:

• We Insist 2025! with Christie Dashiell, the Max Roach reimagining that interrupted this album — Bandcamp
• Waiting Game, the 2019 Social Science debut given to its label without an advance — Bandcamp
• Max Roach's We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (1960) — JazzTimes on the reissue

Institutions and Festivals:

• Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice — founded and directed by Carrington
• Newport Jazz Festival — where Social Science played on August 1, 2026

Also Mentioned:

• 13th — Ava DuVernay's documentary
• Best Alternative Jazz Album — the Grammy category Carrington helped create, first awarded in 2024

—

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

—

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on pop-chart analyst Chris Molanphy.

For almost a decade, Chris has hosted Hit Parade, Slate's monthly show on the history behind the Billboard charts. He also writes Slate's long-running Why Is This Song No. 1? column, and wrote a book on Lil Nas X's Old Town Road for Duke University Press.

We talk about how a Netflix episode can send a forty-year-old song back onto the charts, why he refuses to believe in a guilty pleasure, and what changes in an artist's career when they keep reinventing instead of repeating a formula.

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Our Guest:

• Visit Chris Molanphy at chris.molanphy.com and follow him on Bluesky
• Listen to Hit Parade on Slate
• Read the "Why Is This Song No. 1?" series
• Purchase Old Town Road, Chris's book on the Lil Nas X hit, from Duke University Press

Hit Parade Episodes Discussed:

• Feet on the Ground, Reaching for the Stars Edition — the 100th episode, on Casey Kasem and a life spent with the charts
• Dancing With Himself Edition — Billy Idol from the Bromley Contingent to MTV
• Country Roads and Summer Nights Edition — John Denver and Olivia Newton-John
• Starman to Blackstar Edition — David Bowie's chart career
• The Queen of Disco Edition — Donna Summer
• Near-Miss Hits: '70s Edition — the songs that stalled
• Legacy Hits Are Flops-Turned-Classics — the "Tiny Dancer" episode
• The "Angry Young Men" Who Turned Punk into New Wave — Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, and Graham Parker
• How Britpop Ruled '90s U.K. Music
• The Christmas Music Edition — the UK Christmas number ones show from 2018

Chart History and Reference:

• Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business by Fredric Dannen
• Fred Bronson's The Billboard Book of Number One Hits [Link unverified — recommend manual check]
• Paul Grein's "Chart Beat" column at Billboard
• Casey Kasem's American Top 40

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