Articles by Lawrence Peryer

Radio & Podcasts

An Hour Of Grateful Dead To Celebrate Bob Weir's Birthday

by Lawrence Peryer
October 22, 2026

A bit of a deviation from our norm: Bob Weir, who died in January, would have turned 79 on October 16, so this week is all Grateful Dead, from his 42nd birthday: October 16, 1989, at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, released in 2001 as Nightfall of Diamonds. “Feel Like a Stranger" and “Let It Grow" come from the first set. The rest is the second set's long, connected run from “Dark Star" through “Playing in the Band," “Uncle John's ...

Radio & Podcasts

Charlotte Greve: Everything She Loves, Under Her Own Name

by Lawrence Peryer
October 17, 2026

The Brooklyn saxophonist, composer, and singer joins us to discuss Waterbodies, her tenth album, which brings '80s power ballads, an orchestra, and a choir back to the one long saxophone tone where all her music starts. ...

Radio & Podcasts

Sarah Davachi, Work Money Death, Aaron Parks And Others

by Lawrence Peryer
October 15, 2026

A quiet start: Pan American, from a new record about travel and family, then a nice long stretch of Sarah Davachi. From there the hour continues on to Pierre Daven-Keller's Morricone-minded film scoring, a long big-band piece from Pritesh Walia with Seattle-born pianist Aaron Parks, Craig Leon's Dogon-inspired synthesizer folk, UK spiritual jazz from Work Money Death, and Arp remixed by Jan Jelinek. We close in Paris, 1969, with Brigitte Fontaine and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Playlist ...

Radio & Podcasts

David Perlis: Everything You Love Is from Marin

by Lawrence Peryer
October 10, 2026

The Marin-born author and former WFMU host joins us to discuss Morning in Marin, his history of how Alan Watts, the Grateful Dead, George Lucas, and Philip K. Dick turned one county north of the Golden Gate into a center of postwar American culture. ...

Radio & Podcasts

Mark Isham: Analog Machines And A Jazzman's Breath

by Lawrence Peryer
October 3, 2026

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 ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Mark Isham, John Coltrane And Others

by Lawrence Peryer
October 2, 2026

John Coltrane would have turned 100 last week. So this hour closes with 15 minutes of him live at the Village Vanguard in 1961. On the way there, we open in Paris in 1970, with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Fontella Bass. In between, mostly new records: my podcast guest Mark Isham's first solo album in 15 years, harp and tape loops from Lara Somogyi, megiapa's Sun Ra tribute, a four-track Radiator Hospital song, and Olaf Rupp alone with ...

Radio & Podcasts

Bob Ezrin: Holding Artists To Their Own Best Work

by Lawrence Peryer
September 26, 2026

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 ...

Radio & Podcasts

Minoru Muraoka, Alice Coltrane, Jazztobak And More

by Lawrence Peryer
September 24, 2026

This episode explores the theme of rediscovery: a 1970 Japanese shakuhachi record just reissued, and a Swedish duo closing things out on a stripped-down reading of an old socialist hymn. In between we present a run built entirely around one photography book, unpublished 1970s portraits by the late Warner Bros. photographer Ginny Winn. The Residents are out on tour presenting 1979's Eskimo in full and some of that's here, too. There's more, but you'll have to listen to find out...

Radio & Podcasts

David Katz: Chasing Dub Beyond The Soundsystem

by Lawrence Peryer
September 19, 2026

The reggae historian joins the podcast to discuss Dub Revolution, his account of how King Tubby, Prince Jammy, and Scientist pulled reggae records apart at the mixing desk and sent the pieces back out. ...

Radio & Podcasts

Bill Laswell, Kronos Quartet, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, And More.

by Lawrence Peryer
September 18, 2026

The first half of our show is a deep dub run: an obscure mid-1990s compilation cut, Harry Mudie's 1976 session with King Tubby, Scientist's early-'80s Channel One sound, Prince Far I, and Bill Laswell, who shows up twice, once under his own name and once as the producer who reassembled Bob Marley's catalog into ambient dub on 1997's Dreams of Freedom. The second half slows all the way down: a new quartet session built around Christer Bothén's donso n'goni, Kronos ...