Cosmic America – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Cosmic America

Galen Clavio and Alex McCarthy

Music

Frequency: 1 episode/22d. Total Eps: 93

Cosmic America is a music podcast hosted by Galen Clavio and Alex McCarthy. Each week, we break down a new album --- sometimes they're brand new, sometimes they're classic, and sometime they're obscure. Tweet us at @doctorgc or @akmccarthy for questions or suggestions.

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Apple

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
27/08/2026
#93
🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
25/08/2026
#95
🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
24/08/2026
#76
🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
23/08/2026
#67
🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
17/08/2026
#84
🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
11/07/2026
#83
🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
09/07/2026
#98
🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
08/07/2026
#89
🇩🇪 Germany - musicCommentary
07/04/2026
#78
🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
06/04/2026
#80

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

No links shared by this podcast

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 33%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

95. Everything Must Go - Steely Dan

Friday, May 13, 2022 • Duration 53:13

Our last review in the Steely Dan catalogue finds us in 2003, as we evaluate "Everything Must Go". There are some good moments, for sure! But there's also some questions. While Two Against Nature succeeded modernizing both the jazz sound and the lyrical inspirations of the classic Steely Dan formula, Everything Must Go comes up a bit short in both. It's absolutely not a bad album, but it ends up being a bit disappointing --- especially since it's the last album in the official canon. And while we'd go on to get some more solo albums and band tours, this ends up being the end of the road for the Dan's recording career.

Read moreCollapse

94. Two Against Nature - Steely Dan

Sunday, March 6, 2022 • Duration 58:18

After the surprise live show reunion of the mid-1990s, it felt like only a matter of time before Steely Dan were reconstituted as a studio act. And while it would take until 2000 for that to actually come to fruition, the result ended up being...pretty good, all things considered!

It's definitely a DIFFERENT Steely Dan from where we left them in 1980, but the fans who followed the roadmap of Becker & Fagen's solo and collective efforts over the next two decades had a clue of what to expect going in. What we hear on this album is a fun combination of sardonic lyricism, an almost giddy basking in dirty old man-dom, and some genuinely interesting bemusement that they're still speaking to audiences so directly 30 years into their careers. It's probably not your favorite Steely Dan album, but it's actually a really good Steely Dan album if you can get past the overly professional fusion/jazz sheen that is caked all over the instruments.

Read moreCollapse

85. Can't Buy a Thrill - Steely Dan

Thursday, June 24, 2021 • Duration 01:07:00

We launch our reviews of Steely Dan with an examination of the first official releases by the group - the stellar debut "Can't Buy A Thrill" and the long lost first single. It's a perfect way to delve into a group that fascinated 70s audiences and has consistently grown in stature and popularity over the last 20 years.

Can't Buy a Thrill captures a group of young musicians in 1972 with a unique perspective on popular music and recording. Rock, pop, and jazz collide with fascinating lyrical narratives about gentleman losers and two-timers. The sound on this record is a prototype of the eventual Steely Dan sound, combining pop stylings of the early 70s with instrumental virtuosity and careful recording techniques.

Read moreCollapse

84. Before The Frost / Until The Freeze - The Black Crowes

Tuesday, April 27, 2021 • Duration 01:50:15

On this very special episode of Cosmic America, we decide to tackle the last fully original studio release(s) of the Black Crowes by focusing on each as part of a larger whole. For most people, Before The Frost existed separately from Until The Freeze --- an album of mostly higher octane songs and big musical statements, and then a separate album of sparer, more country-tinged songs.

However, co-host Galen Clavio has always been enamored with the vinyl release, which combined both into a LONG double album that ebbs and flows throughout its 90+ minutes of music. In many ways it's the epic album that the Crowes always needed to make, and it's arguably the best way to listen to this group of songs as a single piece. So join us on a bardic saga as we explore the incredible diversity and melodic appeal of the combined Before The Frost / Until The Freeze albums.

Read moreCollapse

83. Warpaint - The Black Crowes

Thursday, April 22, 2021 • Duration 01:05:15

The Black Crowes broke up after the Lions tour, and it seemed fairly unlikely that they'd be getting back together anytime soon. Yet just a few years later, the band was back again, and with most of the original group back in place! But after a couple of tours and an aborted attempt at an album, things started to fall apart a bit --- Marc Ford left, Eddie Harsch got fired, and suddenly the number of prime-era members was down to the Brothers Robinson and Steve Gorman. They did manage to add North Mississippi All-Stars guitarist (and rock scion) Luther Dickinson, but it was unclear what the destiny of the band was at this point.

Which is what made the content of Warpaint somewhat surprising. The album laid out a set of songs that was both familiar and unfamiliar territory for the Crowes - heavily blues influenced, but with specks of influence of the Robinsons' respective solo careers, plus a more subtle and refined lead guitar sound. The songwriting wasn't quite up to the all-time highs of some of the band's 90s output, but it was also pretty far ahead of By Your Side in places. To some degree the album feels like another progression of the group's sound from Lions, but in many ways it feels like a very different group. Somewhat lost in the shuffle of the group's albums, this one deserves to be revisited.

Read moreCollapse

82. Lions - The Black Crowes

Friday, April 16, 2021 • Duration 01:19:04

Lions represents an interesting turning point in the band's career. Their second "middle lineup" album, this one has a bit more juice than By Your Side, integrating some interesting new songwriting approaches and showing off their Led Zeppelin influences after their touring experiences with Jimmy Page a few years prior. It's not their best album by any means, and it suffers from some of the melodic and lyrical issues that By Your Side has, but it's also a very interesting album that deserves a closer look.

Read moreCollapse

81. By Your Side - The Black Crowes

Wednesday, March 31, 2021 • Duration 01:07:27

Less than a decade after a multi-platinum debut album, the Black Crowes found themselves at a crisis point in 1998. Gone were lead guitarist Marc Ford and bassist Johnny Colt. Gone was their label. And the Crowes found themselves increasingly out of musical fashion.

Enter Columbia Records, Kevin "Caveman" Shirley, VH1 Behind The Music, and a new batch of harder-rocking songs. By Your Side retained some of the DNA of its unreleased predecessor, but had a completely different vibe - less The Band and more late-period Aerosmith. Rich Robinson took on most (if not all) of the guitar work, as guitar solos gave way to layered riffs.

The results were...interesting. Some of the songs yielded a welcome shot of adrenalin, some felt like they were missing a few pieces, and a couple ended up being among the worst songs the band would officially release in their career. It's not a bad album per se, but for a band as talented musically as the Black Crowes, it was a bit of a disappointment. Still worth listening to, though! And we do that here, going track by track and evaluating what worked and what didn't on this album.

Read moreCollapse

80. Band - The Black Crowes

Monday, March 29, 2021 • Duration 01:02:08

Following the Three Snakes and One Charm tour, the Black Crowes toured extensively, then pulled things back in to record a new album, entitled either "Band" or "The Band" depending on who you ask. The album was in some ways a continuation of the quieter approach on Three Snakes, but also went into some new and different directions, with more acoustic and country influences and less outright rock numbers. It showed off some interesting melodic twists to the group's classic formula, while maintaining Rich Robinson's rocksteady riffs as the core of most of the songs.

Unfortunately, the album was rejected by the label, and started a chain of events that would see the Crowes lose 33% of their lineup and undergo a complete change in direction as far as their sound was concerned. The album was resurrected a decade later as part of the "Lost Crowes" CD release, which featured a complete and reproduced version of the album. And it's pretty good! We dive into this still-hidden gem and go track-by-track.

Read moreCollapse

79. Three Snakes and One Charm - The Black Crowes

Monday, March 22, 2021 • Duration 01:07:16

1996's Three Snakes and One Charm has all the hallmarks of a transitional album, yet it wasn't really viewed as such at the time. The last official album with what most would identify as the "classic lineup" for the band, it captures a group struggling at times to live up to the blistering pace their first three albums set. The songwriting is still quite good, the riffs are still memorable, the performances are professional and skilled, and yet it also feels like something is missing from the proceedings - a sense of direction, perhaps? Despite not being as good as its preceding two albums, TSOC is still a very enjoyable album with some memorable moments, and we go track-by-track to chat about every second of it.

Read moreCollapse

78. The Lost Mid-90s - The Black Crowes

Monday, March 22, 2021 • Duration 01:14:19

Alex, Galen, and special guest Ron McFall are back to talk about the unreleased music from what was probably the band's most fertile time period --- the mid 1990s. Chris is in Los Angeles, Rich is in Georgia, but the music continues to come unabated, and there's a lot of magical stuff that didn't make official release from the various projects that were underway. We talk in depth about the Sweet Pickle Salad sessions (which only included Chris and Marc Ford) and the remarkable range and depth of those songs. We also take a listen to several songs recorded at various points between 1993 and 1995, including some cuts that were on the aborted "Tall" album as well as some songs that never got quite that far. Unreleased Crowes tracks can be pretty interesting and compelling, so if you're looking for some new ideas or directions on the music, this is a great place to start.

Read moreCollapse

Cosmic America – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Cosmic America – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify