Critical Listening – Details, episodes & analysis

Critical Listening is a new podcast from journalist Liz Pelly and musician/educator Max Alper exploring music, technology, and culture.

This is episode zero, a short introduction where Liz and Max discuss how the show came to be and what they plan to cover in future episodes. What has Liz been learning on the road promoting her book Mood Machine? What's the deal with Max's online alter ego La Meme Young, and why is he backing away from it? What does it means to cover music and technology through a labor lens, and what would a neo-Luddite movement in music look like?

Support the show, get early access to episodes, AMA sessions with the hosts and an invite to join the conversation on the Discord server at patreon.com/criticallistening.

Full episodes coming soon!

Logo: Aaron Taylor-Waldman Music: "Talk to Me" by Eraser

Welcome to episode one of CRITICAL LISTENING, a new podcast about music and technology hosted by Liz Pelly and Max Alper. 

How does a band survive 30 years of industry hostility to art? For our first episode, we’re chatting with Greg Saunier, the drummer of Deerhoof, who just released Noble and Godlike in Ruin, their 20th record across 30 years as a band. We talk about the political themes of the group’s recent material, resisting the AI slop machine, and whether recorded music itself is an aberration. Plus, we picked up a conversation on protecting the musical commons from tech extraction that Liz and Greg started at a Mood Machine event in LA earlier this year.

Deerhoof’s new record thematically grapples with some big questions of art-making amidst societal collapse. In turn, our first episode serves as a reminder that when we talk about technologies, we’re never just talking about technologies, but the social, political and economic forces influencing them. Thanks for listening, supporting, and also bearing with us as we work through DIY recording and editing!

Songs in this episode: Theme song: “Talk to Me” by Eraser “Disobedience” by Deerhoof “Overrated Species Anyhow” by Deerhoof “Kingtoe” by by Deerhoof “Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaa” by Deerhoof

Support the show, hear more from this interview with a bonus segment, and get an invite to join the conversation on the Discord server at patreon.com/criticallistening.

How are musicians building collective power in a freelance economy that still worships the grind? In recent years the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers have made headlines for its work around streaming, through both the Justice at Spotify campaign and the Living Wage for Musicians Act, which the group co-authored with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. Since these are likely to be recurring topics of conversation on Critical Listening, we wanted to go broader for this early chat. We spoke with steering committee members Joey La Neve Defrancesco and Spencer Peppet for a bit of UMAW 101: What is UMAW? Why does it exist? What are effective strategies for organizing musicians? Also covered: building power, escalation tactics, boycotts, and winning.

Tracklist:

Downtown Boys - Wave of History

The Ophelias - Open Sky

The Ophelias - Spring Grove

Downtown Boys - L'Internationale 

Support the show and get early access to episodes, bonus episodes, and our community Discord by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/criticallistening

We’re back with the first installment of what we’re calling “Headlines,” diving into a few stories from across the music and tech biz press this month. For July, there were some headlines that just seemed impossible to ignore. You guessed it: Ek’s recent investment into AI weapons company Helsing, and that gen-AI classic rock band with millions of streams. We end by searching the internet far and wide for a glimmer of hope — a “bloomscroll” — so it’s not all gloom and doom. Our goal here is to offer critical context on these stories so hoping you all find it helpful! Max also curated some choice needle drops from friends, listener submissions and his own recently released record too.

On this episode you’re hearing “Last Night I Woke Up In The Dark” by Peretsky, “&pull” by Bas Relief, “A Pilcate Leaf” by Greening, and “Drawing Of Me” by U.e.

Support the show by signing up for the Patreon, where you'll get early access to episodes as well as our Discord. Thanks for listening!