The Music Book Podcast

On this episode, Marc talks to two authors, Peter J. Woods and John Melillo. Peter is an assistant professor in learning sciences at the University of Nottingham in England, and John is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Arizona. They've both written academic books about noise: Woods' "Learning Through Noise" was published in early 2025, and Melillo's "The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk" was published in 2020. In the former, Woods examines noise as a potential vehicle ...

On this episode, Marc talks with Adele Bertei, author of "No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene," released today, March 31, 2026. It's an insightful and super-entertaining chronicle of Bertei's journey through New York music and art in the late 70s, including her time in Contortions and The Bloods as well as her solo career. It also delves deep into so many figures of the scene that Bertei worked and associated, particularly women such as Lydia Lunch, Nan Golden,...

On this episode, Marc talks with Kembrew McLeod, the author of two closely related books: "Parallel Lines," an entry on Blondie's 1978 album for the 33.3 series published in 2016, and "The Downtown Pop Underground: New York City and the Literary Punks, Renegade Artists, DIY Filmmakers, Mad Playwrights, and Rock 'N' Roll Glitter Queens Who Revolutionized Culture," published in 2018. Both books cover all the amazing counterculture music and art made in the 60s and 70s in New York, and how...

On this episode, Marc talks with Ronen Givony, author of "Us v. Them: The Age of Indie Music and a Decade in New York (2004-2014)," published in March of 2026. It's a fascinating history of the indie and underground music scene in Brooklyn during a time when Givony ran the Wordless Music concert series, worked for Nonesuch records, and pursued many other music-related activities. Givony divides the book into chapters on individual bands, curators, venues, and publications that had a huge effe...

On this episode, Marc talks to Andy Beta, author of "Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane," published in March of 2026. It's a thorough and insightful biography of the musician and her various lives as a prodigious young student, a seasoned jazz player, a wife and mother tightly bonded to her husband John Coltrane, and a swami who reached spiritual heights as a teacher and leader. Andy charts all of these versions of Coltrane while also providing close readings of ...