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These are difficult times for many people, who are now required to stay at home. Music can help us get through this. In this "two guys not in a pub" episode, Doug and Kirk reflect on social isolation and music. Show notes: Bus-sized fatberg weighing 40 tonnes cleared from London sewer GrimeGran's Twitter feed The Dropkick Murphys - Streaming Up From Boston Royal Shakespeare Company in cinemas National Theatre Live Dead & Company YouTube channel (lots of videos, including full concerts) The Rolling Stones: Four Flicks The Berliner Philharmoniker's Digital Concert Hall Alex Ross's COVID-19 live streams list TJ Connelly's "Uncertain Times" streamcast (M-F, 10-12 ET) Rugby Meets Red Rover: Kabaddi Has Captured the Heart of India Take Control of Working from Home Temporarily Our next tracks: Roger Eno and Brian Eno: Mixing Colours Freak Power: More Of Everything For Everybody If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

While there are lots of reasons to opt for minimal audio equipment, for some people there is an enduring allure for vintage stereo amps and receivers from the hi-fi heydays of the 1970s. The time when audio gear had knobs and dials and VU meters, like the fins and grilles on 1950s cars. We discuss our lust for those baroque audio devices of yore. Show notes: How a Digital Guy Fell in Love with a Vintage Stereo Receiver Braun Regie 550 CEV550 Dieter Rams Design Flickr stream of vintage hi-fi gear Quadraphonic sound (Wikipedia) Onkyo RN855 Yamaha AS-801 Our next tracks: Robert Fripp at the Kitchen 2/5/78 Hot Tuna: Hoppkorv If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Ashley Kahn wrote the book on Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, the jazz album everyone owns if they one at least one jazz album. We talk with Ashley about the recording of Kind of Blue, and about its legacy. (Apologies for the audio issues.) Guest: Ashley Kahn Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece Show notes: Miles Davis: Kind of Blue Glenn Gould's 1955 and 1981 recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations Episode #1 – Songs to Albums to Songs Miles Davis: Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud: Original Soundtrack Richard Williams: The Blue Moment Ashley Kahn: A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (documentary) Our next tracks: Miles Davis: Circle in the Round Miles Davis: Bitches Brew If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Special Guest: Ashley Kahn.Support The Next Track

We talk with Kyle Devine, author of a new book about the environmental impact of music recordings, which raises a number of issues that we had never previously considered. Guest: Kyle Devine Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music Show notes: Nightmares on wax: the environmental impact of the vinyl revival Shellac (Wikipedia) Vinyl Record Production in Peril After Fire at California Plant What the Vinyl Records Comeback Really Looks Like… Phtalate (Wikipedia) William T. Vollmann: Carbon Ideologies Our next tracks: Sir András Schiff plays The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (Visual Album) Cream: Goodbye Tour - Live 1968 If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Andy Doe joins us again to discuss the perils of having software-controlled audio equipment. After the Affaire Sonos, when the company announced that a lot of its older products would become "obsolete," perhaps it's time to think more carefully about how long hardware we buy will last, when it depends on software. Guest: Andy Doe Show notes: Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance LSO Live Starting in May 2020, some of our oldest products will no longer receive software updates or new features. We want to explain why and your options. Sonos Recycling Program Just Creates Waste Playing Multi-Room Audio After Sonos Sonos, Squeezed by the Tech Giants, Sues Google – The New York Times HomePod vs. Sonos One Stereo Pair Comparison AirPlay (Wikipedia) Sonos, Squeezed by the Tech Giants, Sues Google – The New York Times Episode #147 - Kirk's New Sonos Amp Ring Doorbell App Packed with Third-Party Trackers The Cost of Avast's Free Antivirus: Companies Can Spy on Your Clicks Internet of Shit Our next tracks: Yesterday The Rezillos: Can't Stand The Rezillos If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Special Guest: Andy Doe.Support The Next Track

Chris Connaker of Audiophile Style renovated the attic of his house and turned it into the ultimate listening room. He then tuned it using amazing speakers, acoustic treatment, and DSP (digital signal processing). He explains how he went about this, and how the room itself is perhaps the most important element in an audio system. Guest: Chris Connaker Show notes: A New Listening Room Part One A New Listening Room Part Two: Acoustics, Speakers, DSP REW (Room EQ Wizard) DSP - Digital Signal Processing (Wikipedia) Our next tracks: Yes: Close to the Edge Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here David Bowie: Heroes The Clash: London Calling Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street Brian Eno: Another Green World The Who: Live at Leeds Grateful Dead: Live/Dead Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Special Guest: Chris Connaker.Support The Next Track

For the first episode of the new decade - the last one recorded in the previous decade - Doug and Kirk look back on their year in music. Show notes: Honkyoku (Kirk's shakuhachi website) The Zen of Everything (Kirk's podcast) Rode Procaster microphone Yamaha AG03 mixer Episode #147 - Kirk's New Sonos Amp KEF Q350 speakers Q Acoustics 3020I speakers Amazon Echo Dot Tivoli Audio model One Episode #162 - Apple's New Improved macOS Media Apps Doug's AppleScripts Time Out: We Don’t Give Music Enough Time to Grow on Us Anymore John Cale: Music for a New Society Our next tracks: Chick Corea Trio: Trilogy Harry Nilsson: Pussy Cats If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

There’s got to be a German word for this. It’s that feeling, that first second, when you heard Jingle Bells in the middle of summer. Show notes: Episode #58 – David Weigel on the History of Progressive Rock Trio Mediaeval: Folk Songs Bruce Springsteen: Santa Claus is Coming to Town Do They Know It’s Christmas We Are the World Bob Dylan: Christmas in the Heart Bob Dylan: Must Be Santa (video) The Jethro Tull Christmas Album Apple Music Christmas Playlist Die Hard It’s a Wonderful Life A Charlie Brown Christmas Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Charlie Brown Christmas I Wish it Could Be Christmas (article) The Kinks: Father Christmas Nat King Cole: The Christmas Song Emerson, Lake & Palmer: I Believe in Father Christmas Mannheim Steamroller: Christmas Ghosts of Christmas Past Roomful of Blues: Roomful of Christmas Our next tracks: Harold Budd: Bandits of Stature Frank Zappa: The Hot Rats Sessions If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Sid Smith is the official biographer of King Crimson. He recently updated his book, In The Court Of King Crimson - An Observation Over 50 Years, that tells the tale of this seminal band. We talk with Sid about everything Crimson. Guest: In The Court Of King Crimson - An Observation Over 50 Years Show notes: DGM Live Episode #161 - Philip Thomas on Morton Feldman's Piano Music Episode #97 - Jerry Ewing on Progressive Rock Our next tracks: CBGB (movie) Jeff Beck: Blow By Blow If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Special Guest: Sid Smith.Support The Next Track

Lewis Shiner's latest novel Outside the Gates of Eden is a saga that begins at a Dylan concert in 1965, then follows a musician and his friends as they age, up to the present. This novel has a huge scope, with moving scenes about music, and about a generation growing up. (Apologies for the sketchy Skype audio quality.) Guest: Lewis Shiner Show notes: Outside the Gates of Eden Episode #28 – Music and Mystery: Author Peter Robinson on Music in His Novels Why Bob Dylan Matters Episode #67 – The Grateful Dead’s Legendary 5/8/77 Cornell Concert, with Author Peter Conners Our next tracks: Fontaines D.C.: Dogrel Mother's Finest: Another Mother Further If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Special Guest: Lewis Shiner.Support The Next Track