PODCAST · music
Cosmic America
by Galen Clavio and Alex McCarthy
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.
Episodes
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Playlist Updates - Spacehog, Franz Ferdinand, Deep Sea Diver, The Backseat Lovers, and more
Galen is back with more track talk, as we induct several new songs into the CrimsonCast Music Companion playlist on Spotify, including: In The Meantime by Spacehog Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver Lake Superior by The Arcs Walk Away by James Gang Dripfield by…
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Playlist Additions - David Vandervelde, Steely Dan, The Pointer Sisters, Local Natives
A soft relaunch of Cosmic America, as Galen talks through four new additions to the CrimsonCast Music Companion, which you can follow on Spotify.
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95. Everything Must Go - Steely Dan
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...
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94. Two Against Nature - Steely Dan
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…
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93. 11 Tracks of Whack - Walter Becker (part of the Steely Dan Series)
The pause in the Steely Dan creative partnership had quietly eroded in the late 80s and early 90s, with Becker playing a key role in Fagen's second solo album. Fagen returned the favor on Becker's first solo album, which served as a prelude for the first Steely Dan tour in nearly 20 years.…
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92. The Nightfly - Donald Fagen (part of the Steely Dan Series)
As you know by now, Steely Dan's core identity is the songwriting and performative partnership of Fagen & Becker. And with the group's dissolution in the early 1980s, the partners would occasionally step out on their own and create art under their own name. With Becker abandoning the continent…
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91. Gaucho - Steely Dan
The 80's have arrived in Steely Dan land, and all is not well. After the stratospheric success of Aja on the artistic and commercial stages, Becker & Fagen returned to New York and started work on their next album. But it ended up being a tortuous recording process, full of the kinda of troubles...
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90. Aja - Steely Dan
Most artists or musical groups have a "pinnacle" album --- one where they demonstrate conclusively their talent, their genius, their modus operandi. Aja is that album for Steely Dan --- a brilliant mix of music, lyrics, production, and performance that elevates many of the core elements of their...
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89. The Royal Scam - Steely Dan
The mid-70s are in full swing, and the contemporary malaise is starting to seep into pop music more and more. Keen cultural observers Becker and Fagen are right there to document the troubles, and we get to hear a lot of those observations in the lyrics of The Royal Scam. We also hear some...
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88. Katy Lied - Steely Dan
Steely Dan has fully morphed into a studio-only operation at this phase --- the last tour of of the 70s ended in mid-1974, and Becker and Fagen had disbanded the permanent membership (except for themselves), opting instead for an alchemy of the best session players in Los Angeles. They also...
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87. Pretzel Logic - Steely Dan
We're back after an unexplained hiatus, talking in-depth about a pivotal album in Steely Dan history, the 1974 classic "Pretzel Logic". As Becker & Fagen's vision for the band mutates into a largely studio-based operation, their conceptualization of songs and the way the music is recorded starts…
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86. Countdown To Ecstasy - Steely Dan
Sophomore albums are often a mixed bag, as musical artists grapple with the shock of going pro, the exhaustion of their initial written material, and the need to come up with new ideas while in a constant state of touring to support their first album. Steely Dan were no different, but unlike many...
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85. Can't Buy a Thrill - Steely Dan
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...
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84. Before The Frost / Until The Freeze - The Black Crowes
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…
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83. Warpaint - The Black Crowes
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,...
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82. Lions - The Black Crowes
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...
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81. By Your Side - The Black Crowes
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...
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80. Band - The Black Crowes
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…
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79. Three Snakes and One Charm - The Black Crowes
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...
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78. The Lost Mid-90s - The Black Crowes
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...
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77. Amorica - The Black Crowes
Amorica comes right in the middle of perhaps the greatest creative stretch in the Black Crowes career --- but also in the midst of the personnel conflicts that would ultimately tear the band apart. With Chris Robinson stationed in LA and Rich Robinson still in Georgia, the writing and recording...
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76. The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion - The Black Crowes
Is this the Crowes' magnum opus? Quite possibly yes. The band was hot after two long tours on the success of Shake Your Money Maker, and back in the recording studio with fresh musical ideas, improved playing techniques, and most importantly, two new members of the band who would steer the ship…
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75. Shake Your Money Maker - The Black Crowes
Our next artist spotlight is The Black Crowes, a band that had one of the bigger roller-coaster rides in recent rock and roll memory. It all started with Shake Your Money Maker, a dynamite set of songs in the classic 70's Stones/Free/Aerosmith mold that emanates energy and youthful vigor. A twin...
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73. Reflektor - Arcade Fire
Galen and Alex begin the post-Grammy era of Arcade Fire with a look at the band’s longest and most bizarre album, Reflektor. Is there too much LCD Soundsystem and not enough Regine Chassagne? Is it too unfocused thematically? The boys dive into these questions and more on this episode of Cosmic...
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72. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
The Suburbs is either the best or second-best Arcade Fire album according to most fans, and it's easy to understand why people hold it in such high acclaim. The soaring, anthemic title track sets the table for a tremendously well-written series of vignettes on middle America (and Canada), and the...
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69. The Arcade Fire EP and Intro
Cosmic America is back, and we're tackling the discography of Arcade Fire, one of the more enduring and endearing bands to come out of the Aughts. We start with an overview of the band, before segueing into a review of their first official release, the Arcade Fire EP, which contains a lot of...
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68. The Wrap-Up Show - The Rolling Stones
Our Rolling Stones reviews are sadly at an end (at least, until the band releases a new album!). On this final episode, Alex and Galen take a look back at the herculean task of reviewing one of the longest and most distinguished musical catalogs in rock and roll, and talk about what they learned...
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67. Singles and Extras 1989-present - The Rolling Stones
We're not quite done with the Rolling Stones yet! Although the number of albums dropped off precipitously in the post-Wyman period, the number of tours increased quite a bit, as did the number of greatest hits albums. We take a tour through the "extra" tracks that dotted the band's landscape…
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66. A Bigger Bang - The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones last studio album? Can that really be? (The answer is yes, at least until the long-rumored 2020 album comes out). It's hard to believe we've finally gotten to this point. So we arrive here, and what do we find? A pretty good album overall! Very back-to-basics, especially...
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65. Bridges To Babylon - The Rolling Stones
Voodoo Lounge showed that the Stones might actually be able to pull off the unthinkable --- a melding of the classic melodicism and guitarplay that they'd been known for with songcraft that sounded relatively fresh and, if not modern, at least in keeping with the aesthetic of the times. Part of...
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64. Voodoo Lounge - The Rolling Stones
This 1994 release is the first Stones studio album Galen had on CD, and it’s the first Stones album released in Alex’s lifetime. Beyond the personal connections to the album, Voodoo Lounge offers a wide variety of musical stylings and some excellent performances. The hour-long album offers tastes...
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63. Steel Wheels - The Rolling Stones
The 1980s, mercifully, were coming to an end as the Rolling Stones released Steel Wheels on August 29, 1989. The album, hailed at the time as a return to form, marked the Rolling Stones’ returning to their signature sound. Galen and Alex break down the good and bad about this album, and there’s...
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62. Dirty Work - The Rolling Stones
From the album cover to some of the songs that sound unfinished or uninspired, there’s quite a bit to criticize about Dirty Work. The 1986 album was made amid internal disagreements and continued substance abuse issues, leading to a musical document that marks another rough time in the band’s...
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61. Undercover - The Rolling Stones
The mid-1980s were not an easy or fruitful time for the Rolling Stones. Galen and Alex break down the goings-on behind the scenes while examining the band’s 1983 effort Undercover. It sounds very much like a 1983 album, with echoey drums and synth sounds. From the title track to “Too Much Blood”,...
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60. Tattoo You - The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones were back in 1981 with a brand new album --- except this was unlike any "Brand New Album" they'd ever released as a band, since almost none of it was actually brand new. Instead, the Stones and their engineering team combed the vaults and found a bunch of half-finished tracks,...
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59. Emotional Rescue - The Rolling Stones
Emotional Rescue was not a well-loved album by many at the time it was released in 1980, and it's relatively low reputation among Rolling Stones albums has largely persisted over the years. Is that a fair perspective? Or did the album simply get caught up in disappointment that it wasn't quite as...
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58. Some Girls - The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones were back in a huge way in 1978, roaring into the hearts and minds of fans and critics with the rock/punk/disco/country synthesis of Some Girls. Here finally, at the end of the 70s, was an album that once again sat right in the middle of the musical zeitgeist of the era. Of...
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57. Black and Blue - The Rolling Stones
Mick Taylor is gone, having quit shortly after the release of It's Only Rock & Roll. While he wasn't a huge fixture on that album, he helped to provide some of its most memorable moments. With Keith Richards sinking further into addiction-related absence, it was a fair question to ask what would...
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56. It's Only Rock & Roll - The Rolling Stones
The Stones may have taken a step back on the recording front in the eyes of many with 1973's Goats Head Soup, but the band had never been stronger on the road, plowing through a legendary set of tours in both the United States and Europe that cemented their reputations as the biggest rock and…
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55. Goats Head Soup - The Rolling Stones
Goats Head Soup is largely identified as the album where the Rolling Stones stopped being as special as they once were. It would have been nearly impossible for any band to keep up the breakneck pace of incredible art that the Stones pumped out from 1966 to 1972, and for many critics and fans,...
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54. Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
Few musical releases are more steeped in rock and roll mythology than Exile on Main Street. The self-styled World's Greatest Rock 'n Roll Band produced a double album that acted as a road map for most of their musical influences and creations, recorded during a time of great personal and...
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53. Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones
After an 18 month hiatus, the Rolling Stones returned to the global spotlight in 1971 with Sticky Fingers, the album that many critics and fans consider their very best. And it's hard to argue with perspective. Sticky Fingers is chock full of incredible musical moments and ideas, watching the…
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52. Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones
The period between September 1968 and November 1969 was an incredibly fertile time for The Rolling Stones, but also one of great tragedy and personal loss. Brian Jones would gradually fade into drug-induced obscurity before eventually being fired and accidentally dying, Mick Taylor would join the...
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51. Beggars Banquet - The Rolling Stones
Please allow us to introduce one of the 1968 album that changed everything for the Rolling Stones. “Beggars Banquet” is the first in one of the greatest four-album runs in rock history, and starts off with “Sympathy for the Devil,” one of the band’s most iconic tracks. Galen and Alex go beyond...
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50. The 1960s Singles and B-Sides - The Rolling Stones
Galen and Alex take a step back, looking into some of the Rolling Stones’ earliest songs, and the key early tracks that were released as singles instead of being on albums. These include some of the most iconic songs in rock history, such as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Paint It, Black.”...
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49. Their Satanic Majesties Request - The Rolling Stones
Dust off those wizard hats and kaftans and fire up your mellotron, it’s time to get weird. Galen and Alex examine a truly singular entry in the Rolling Stones’ career with 1967’s “Their Satanic Majesties Request.” There are some good ideas and some solid songs on this album, but a chaotic…
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48. Between The Buttons - The Rolling Stones
Galen and Alex dive into another somewhat overlooked gem in the Rolling Stones’ catalogue with 1967’s “Between the Buttons.” The American version includes the bigger hits (“Let’s Spend the Night Together” and “Ruby Tuesday”), but the boys discuss the UK version to get a look at some unheralded...
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47. Aftermath - The Rolling Stones
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones! In what may be the most daunting challenge that Cosmic America could call upon itself, we have decided to review nearly the entire discography of The Rolling Stones, starting with the UK Version of Aftermath and beyond. Yes, this seems crazy even to us…
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46. Alligator - The National
Cosmic America’s deep dive into The National ends with a bang. Though it doesn’t have the grandiosity that the next two albums have, “Alligator” is almost certainly the most energetic and accessible listen in band’s catalogue. Two unforgettable songs bookend the album, with so many highlights in...
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45. Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers - The National
Galen and Alex accompany The National on a huge leap between albums, discussing 2003’s “Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers.” One of the band’s principal members described this as an “experimental album,” and the Cosmic America team dives into which new sounds the band carries forward and which sounds the...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Galen Clavio and Alex McCarthy
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Cosmic America have?
Cosmic America currently has 93 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Cosmic America about?
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.
How often does Cosmic America release new episodes?
Cosmic America has 93 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Cosmic America?
You can listen to Cosmic America on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Cosmic America?
Cosmic America is created and hosted by Galen Clavio and Alex McCarthy.
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