Shows
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicThe Cars' Ric Ocasek with Author Peter AaronIn this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we discuss the life and music of Ric Ocasek, the driving force of one of New Wave’s most successful bands, the hitmaking machine, The Cars, with Peter Aaron, the author of the first in-depth biography of the musician. The sounds of new wave pop music and the early days of MTV were defined by the work of a handful of iconic musicians, and few stood taller in that era than Ric Ocasek, frontman and primary songwriter for the Cars. The band charted 13 Top 40 singles in the U.S. from 1978 to...
2026-02-1056 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicHey Joe & The Murder Ballad in Rock Music with Author Jason SchneiderIn this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we discuss the long history and profound influence of a single song, “Hey Joe,” a tune that binds nearly every strand of 20th-century American popular music. “Hey Joe” was written sometime in the early 1960s by a man named Billy Roberts, an obscure singer and guitarist from South Carolina who moved to New York City, drawn by the burgeoning folk music scene in Greenwich Village. It was a time when original material was scarce, leading other singers to quickly adapt quality songs in the spirit of folk music’s oral traditions...
2026-01-1353 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicBob Dylan's New York - A Historical Guide with Dick WeissmanIn this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we discuss Bob Dylan's New York, a guidebook and history of New York's key role throughout Dylan's lengthy career. It places Dylan's early career within the storied history of Greenwich Village, a hotbed of artistic innovation. A contemporary of Dylan's, musician/author/educator Dick Weissman walked the same streets, played music in the same venues, and witnessed the growth of the folk music revival from before Dylan became popular to after the height of his impact on the music scene. In this episode, Weissman discusses ten easy-to-follow walking maps and...
2025-12-0957 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicThe Beatles on Film with author Steve MatteoThe Beatles produced five films during their time together: A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, and Let It Be. Some were cinematic successes, and some were not, but―along with subsequent reissues, bonus material, and Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back, a documentary companion to Let It Be―they comprise an endlessly fascinating document of key phases in the group’s career.In this comprehensive deep-dive into the band’s movies, author and longtime music journalist Steve Matteo follows the origins, filming, and often frenzied fan reception of projects from the 1964 premiere of...
2025-11-1057 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicThe Life of '60s Record Producer Tom Wilson with Author Richie UnterbergerFor the latest edition of Reading Is Funktamental, we speak with Richie Unterberger, author of more than a dozen of the great books on rock ' n ' roll history. His latest work was as a contributor to a great book of essays on underappreciated record producer Tom Wilson, Everybody’s Head Is Open To Sound. Wilson was a black Harvard graduate who produced the debut recordings of jazz greats Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor, who produced the incredible early work of Bob Dylan and discovered not only Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention but the Velvet Underground. Fo...
2025-10-0758 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicNew York City Experimental Music 1980-1990 with Brooke Wentz, author of Transfigured New YorkFor the latest edition of Reading Is Funktamental, we speak with Brooke Wentz, author of Transfigured New York, a fantastic book of interviews with leading figures in the experimental music scene in NYC from 1980-1990 including composers like Arthur Russell, Glenn Branca, John Cage, La Monte Young and leading jazz musicians like John Zorn, Vernon Reid and Jean-Paul Bourelly. Brooke also discusses her work as a music supervisor for film and TV and her emergence as a leading force in world music with her company, Seven Seas Music. For more, read my earlier piece on Brooke here https://nysmusic...
2025-09-0857 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicThe Life & Music of The Band's Richard Manuel with Biographer Stephen T. LewisGuests: Steven Lewis, author of Richard Manuel: His Life and Music, from the Hawks and Bob Dylan to The Band Richard Manuel was a fearless original. Sweetly soulful as a vocalist and endearingly creative as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he was a vital part of some of rock ’n’ roll’s pivotal moments, including Bob Dylan’s controversial move to electric music, Woodstock 1969, and the legendary Last Waltz. For the first time, Manuel’s compositions and performances are critiqued with expert commentary in a new book by Steven Lewis—alongside new interviews with family, friends, and fellow musicians, i...
2025-08-1257 min
KTVU Fox 2Take 2: San Jose Police Shooting, Teamsters Solidarity Strike, and Restaurateur Erin WadeKTVU's Gasia and Sal start the show with a live shot from reporter Tori Gaines. She's reporting on the police shooting that happened on Sunday. She's at Cataldi Park in San Jose. We then swing to reporter Devin Trubey who's in Fremont. As cities scramble for alternatives, we landed on a transfer station residents are welcome to use. We're now in day six of no trash service for a number of Bay Area communities. She brings us the latest from the Teamsters solidarity strike against Republic Services. Normal service is expected to resume in the next few days.
2025-07-1422 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicJohn McLaughlin & the Mahavishnu Orchestra with author Walter KoloskyIn this month's episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we speak with Walter Kolosky, author of the new book Mahavishnu Memories. Kolosky's latest is his third book, charting the career of the remarkable jazz fusion guitarist, John McLaughlin. This book chronicles all the live concerts of the original iteration of McLaughlin's mighty Mahavishnu Orchestra. For more info, see the following interview conducted with the author at NYSMusic.com https://nysmusic.com/2025/05/10/interview-author-walter-kolosky-on-the-mahavishnu-orchestra/"Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors...
2025-07-0757 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicYoko Ono - Her Life & Art with Biographer David ShiffJohn Lennon once described Yoko Ono as the world’s most famous unknown artist. “Everybody knows her name, but no one knows what she does.” She has only been important to history insofar as she impacted Lennon. Throughout her life, Yoko has been a caricature, a curiosity, and, often, a villain—an inscrutable seductress, a manipulating con artist, and a caterwauling fraud. The Lennon/Beatles saga is one of the greatest stories ever told. Still, Yoko’s part has been missing—hidden in the Beatles’ formidable shadow, further obscured by flagrant misogyny and racism. This definitive biography of Yoko Ono’s life wil...
2025-06-1057 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicThe Rise & Fall & Rise of The Zombies with Robin Platts on Reading Is FunktamentalSix decades after they stormed the British and American charts in 1964, The Zombies are possibly more popular than ever. Their biggest hits, ‘She’s Not There’, ‘Tell Her No’ and ‘Time of the Season’ have been played more than 14 million times on U.S. radio alone. Praised by critics, discovered by a new generation of fans, and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Zombies returned in the 2000s to establish themselves as a top-class touring act still driven to create new music. Based largely on author Robin Platts’ interviews with the five original band members, Times and Season...
2025-05-1257 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicLegendary Producer Joe Boyd on World Music & London Music Scene in the '60sGuests: Joe Boyd, Record Producer & Author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain Joe Boyd is a legend in music. He was the soundman when Dylan went electric at Newport, the founder of the legendary UFO club in London, and the producer of seminal works by Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, John Martyn, Fairport Convention, R.E.M., and many more. In the 1980s, Boyd pioneered global music through his label Hannibal Records, which brought the world everything from the greatest in Cuban music to Bulgarian throat singing and Afropop. Joe’s experience in the 1960s wa...
2025-04-0857 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicThe Life of Traffic's Chris Wood with author Dan RopekGuests: Dan Ropek, Author of Tragic Magic: The Life of Traffic’s Chris WoodTraffic was the most enigmatic British band of their day. Formed in early 1967 by Chris Wood, Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Dave Mason, they rejected the bright lights of London in favor of a run-down, supposedly haunted cottage in the country - a place to live communally and write music.With Chris especially intent on channeling the vibes of England's landscape into their sound, days would be spent getting high, exploring, playing, and working in varying proportions. Against all odds, this ec...
2025-03-1157 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicTalkin' Greenwich Village - A Musical History with author David BrowneNew York’s Greenwich Village is a compact sanctuary that has attracted a legion of visionaries and non-conformists who had an outsized influence on 20th-century culture – on alternative lifestyles, progressive politics, and the arts, especially music. Within the maze of coffeehouses, nightclubs, and watering holes on its narrow streets, the legends-to-be of folk, jazz, and rock coalesced into tight-knit communities that birthed sound innovations that continue to resonate today. Now veteran music journalist David Browne has expertly chronicled this community's sprawling history and impact in a new book, Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemi...
2025-02-1257 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicThe Complicated Life of Skip Spence with Moby Grape's Don Stevenson & Author Cam CobbGuests: Don Stevenson, drummer/songwriter of Moby Grape & Cam Cobb, author of Weighted Down: The Complicated Life of Skip Spence. He was one of the Holy Trinity of critically revered and maybe unjustly labeled “acid casualties” of late ‘60s/early ‘70s music. Along with Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett and the 13th Floor Elevators’ Roky Erickson, Skip Spence was a star-crossed figure idolized for his all-too-brief contributions to shaping psychedelia through his work with Moby Grape and his one incredibly stark and endlessly intriguing solo album, Oar. His briefly burning creativity and agonizingly slow decline are profiled...
2025-01-0757 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicSonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus with author Aidan LevyGuest: Aidan Levy, Author of Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins. In his new book, Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins, author Aidan Levy has created a work nearly as sprawling and monumental as the seven decades of sounds crafted by a man widely considered “jazz’s greatest living improviser.”Levy devoted seven years to capturing Rollins – the musician, the myth, the civil rights activist, environmentalist, and wandering spiritualist – in a whopping 750 readable pages. The book is based on more than 200 interviews with Rollins, his family members, friends, and collaborat...
2024-12-0957 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicThe Life & Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler with author Richard KolodaGuest: Richard Koloda, Author of Holy Ghost: The Life and Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert AylerA lawyer by trade and a jazz musicologist by passion, Richard Koloda has spent over two decades creating the most authoritative look at the life and music of free jazz pioneer Albert Ayler. His book follows Albert's life from his childhood and apprenticeship in Cleveland to his glory days in France and Scandinavia to his mysterious end via a drowning/suicide (or murder?) in the East River. My earlier print review of this fascinating book can be found at https...
2024-11-1157 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicMoon Zappa on her memoir, Earth to MoonEarth to Moon is the new critically acclaimed memoir of Moon Zappa, the eldest child of legendary rocker Frank Zappa and his wife, Gail. The book presents the often-disturbing realities of growing up in the shadow of her self-absorbed, workaholic dad (a man she idolized above all others) and her bossy mother, who vented at her eldest child due, to her father’s philandering ways. The book chronicles her childhood amongst the legendary musicians of Laurel Canyon, her stints as a VJ on MTV and VH-1, her acting and writing careers, and, of course, her star-turn on her dad’s bi...
2024-10-0657 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicRocker Dave Mason on his memoir, Only You Know and I KnowOnly You Know and I Know is not only the name of one of his biggest hits but also the title of rocker Dave Mason’s new autobiography. It’s a freewheeling testament, providing that Dave was one of the most Zelig of rocker. He came to fame as a co-founder of the group Traffic and the writer of their biggest and most cover hit, “Feelin’ Alright.” He’s also contributed to defining tracks by pals like Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Derek & the Dominoes, Delaney & Bonnie, Fleetwood Mac, and more. Dave then went on to a fruitful solo career, which contin...
2024-09-0957 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicKing Crimson, their 50+ Year history with author Sid SmithHosted by Sal CataldiGuest: Sid Smith, Author of In the Court of King Crimson: An Observation over 50 Years Sid Smith is a British journalist best known for In the Court of King Crimson: An Observation over Fifty Year, the definitive history of Robert Fripp and his band, King Crimson, the primary architects of progressive rock. Smith has penned hundreds of features and reviews on rock and jazz for publications including Prog Magazine, Record Collector, Mojo, Uncut, and Q, and has also written liner notes for albums by numerous notable artists and record labels. His...
2024-08-1357 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicRoxy Music & Sparks' Sal Maida and Mitchell Cohen on Flop Albums You Oughta KnowRight here is the demo audition/episode for Reading Is Funktamental. In it, Hudson Valley-based musician and writer Sal Cataldi speaks with the authors/editors of The White Label Promo Preservation Society: 100 Flop Albums You Ought To Know.This delicious deep dive into music deserving greater recognition was written and compiled by Sal Maida, NYC-born bassist for Roxy Music, Sparks and ‘70s power pop combo Milk ‘n’ Cookies, and veteran rock journalist and A&R exec Mitchell Cohen. The duo recruited for their “society” a gang of esteemed music obsessives – musicians, label executives and journalists – who chose favorite album...
2024-07-1656 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicAuthor Joel Selvin on his new book on star-crossed drummer Jim GordonHosted by Sal Cataldi.Guest: Joel Selvin From 1972 – 2009, Selvin was the very influential rock music columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He is also the author of more than a dozen of the best books on rock music and culture. His works have covered artists like Sly Stone, The Grateful Dead, Ricky Nelson, and Sammy Hagar and events like the Summer of Love, the birth of the Peppermint Twist, and The Rolling Stones’ ill-fated concert at Altamont. In this interview, Selvin will discuss his latest, Drums & Demons: The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon, a bio of one of t...
2024-07-1657 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicHistory of the Fillmore East with Joshua White (Joshua Lightshow) and author Frank MastropoloGuests: Frank Mastropolo and Joshua White This month, "Reading is Funktamental" host Sal Cataldi speaks to two people who know the illustrious history of the legendary Fillmore East best. Frank Mastropolo is the author of Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock History Forever, a comprehensive history of the most famous rock hall in NYC history. He will joined by Joshua White, the man who created the Joshua Light Show which added an artsy element to the sounds made on this venerable stage."Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music...
2024-07-1657 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicRoxy Music's Phil Manzanera on his new memoirHosted by Sal CataldiGuest: Phil Manzanera Phil Manzanera is a guitarist, songwriter and producer best known for his long-running association with Roxy Music, one of the leading pioneers of art-rock. Manzanera has concurrently pursued a long and fruitful career as a solo artist and a collaborator with leading names like Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt, Bob Dylan, David Gilmour and the later day Pink Floyd. His new memoir, Revolucion to Roxy, charts both his fascinating musical career and captivating chapters of his personal life including witnessing Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba as a child. He also te...
2024-07-1657 min
Reading Is Funktamental - A Pod About Books About MusicEccentric singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock on his new memoirHosted by Sal CataldiGuest: Robyn HitchcockRobyn Hitchcock is one of the true eccentrics of British music, a songwriter who has revealed the beauty in the absurdity of life for five decades. He first rose to fame with the influential art-rockers the Soft Boys in the mid-‘70s before going solo in the early ‘80s producing over two dozen acclaimed albums including Elements of Light (1981), Ole Tarantula (2006) and Storefront Hitchcock (2000), the soundtrack to a down-n-dirty concert film by Jonathan Demme. His songs have been covered by artists including R.E.M, Sparklehorse and Suzanne Vega...
2024-07-1657 min
Awful Announcing PodcastSpike Eskin on WFAN, Carl Banks, JJ Redick, and moreHost Brandon Contes interviews WFAN VP of Programming and host of the "Rights to Ricky Sanchez" podcast Spike Eskin. Brandon and Spike discuss a wide range of topics including what happened with Carl Banks and how things are going, paid interviews, not liking JJ Redick, and more.For even more discussion, head over to awfulannouncing.com and follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, TikTok, Bluesky, and YouTube: @awfulannouncing.-:41: Are people complaining more about WFAN or the 76ers?-1:41: Receiving feedback-2:55: Has WFAN gone into the toilet?-6:46: “Evan an...
2023-12-291h 01
MFM SPEAKS OUTEP 34: MFM Salutes 2021" You inspire us to work hard to improve the service we do for the music community." Episode Summary:In this episode of MFM Speaks Out, Dawoud Kringle offers a summary of our progress as a podcast and of MFM as a whole during the year 2021, and shares music from our guests. Episode Notes:In this episode of MFM Speaks Out, Dawoud Kringle offers a summary of the work he, Adam Reifsteck, and Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi did on the podcast, our progress of the MFM Speaks Out podcast.The gues...
2022-01-011h 11
MFM SPEAKS OUTEP 17: Sal Cataldi on Surviving and Prospering as an Improvising Musician"To me, there isn't a middle zone between creative paths of improvisation and traditional paths... Musicians deserve to be compensated and deserve a decent environment to play their music." - Sal CataldiIn this episode of the MFM Speaks Out, Dawoud Kringle interviews Sal Cataldi. Sal is a guitarist, composer, improviser, producer, a contributor to nysmusic.com, MFM member, and founder of Cataldi Public Relations Inc," In this episode, Sal discusses his Spaghetti Eastern Music project, His recent release "One Act Sonix" with the Vapor Vespers project, his other music projects such as the Hari Karaoke Trio of...
2020-10-1655 min
Woodstock RoundtableWhat does it mean to be "in synch?"Welcome to the Woodstock Roundtable. Conversational Improv with Host Doug Grunther and Radio Woodstock Weekend Warrior Ron Van Warmer.Key Topics: What does it mean to be "in synch?" Well, if clocks can do it,so can we; The Sultan of Sonic Soul Joins in the studio and we’ll talk to Sal Cataldi, Musician and Creative Event Producer, and Linda Marston, Director of Arts Mid-HudsonWe’ll end as we always do with our Inter-Galactic Wrap-Up with Street Philosopher and Personal Friend of the Big Electron, Patrick Carlin.
Please check out https://www.woodstockvitamins.com/promo codeROUNDTABLE for 15%off your purcha...
2019-09-1657 min
Hear and Now with Rachel C.Hear and Now with Rachel C. (with Sal Cataldi, Michael West, and Doug Hitchcock)In this edition of Hear and Now, Sal Cataldi, Doug Hitchcock, and Michael West join Rachel C. in Rachel C.'s studios to talk about their upcoming show benefiting Malcolm Smart, who also joins the conversation via phone. The three discuss how they came to collaborate as musicians on the Brooklyn scene years ago and where the changes in the music industry have taken them. Music from prior projects like Frank's Museum and Hari Karaoke is shared along with current projects everyone is working on. This episode is a must listen to for anyone who loves New York rock...
2018-11-0658 min
Bushwick GarageBushwick Garage 116Psychedelic, Punk, Post-Punk, Post-Rock, Rock, Experimental, Ambient, Electronic, Brooklyn Underground, Black Metal Gospel, Shoegaze, all this and more in tonight's Bushwick Garage. Turn on your electric internet radio at midnight and tune in with me to David Bowie, SEKEL, Honolulu Mountain Daffodils, Tombstones In Their Eyes, Pretty Lightning, Drop Electric, Sabled Sun, D'NT, Zeal & Ardor, SCHONWALD, Naked Sweatshop, Plaid Dracula, Tournament, Evil Triplet, BEACHES, DEAFCULT, Moon Duo, Spaghetti Eastern Music ( Sal Cataldi ), Junk Boys, Castle Black, I AM THE POLISH ARMY, Never, The Veils, Public Memory, Fat White Family
2018-03-121h 59
Hear and Now with Rachel C.Hear and Now with Rachel C. (with Sal Cataldi)Musician Sal Cataldi joins Rachel C. in the studio to discuss his long-spanning musical career, the evolution of the Spaghetti Eastern compositions and those recordings, as well as upcoming performances and projects. Sal also performs live. Hear and Now with Rachel C. can be heard LIVE every Thursday at 7:00 PM Eastern on Radio Free Brooklyn.
2017-06-1459 min