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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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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Dig Deeper
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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• 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 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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Dig Deeper
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
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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.
• 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 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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Dig Deeper
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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• 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
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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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Dig Deeper
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
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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.