Cosmic America
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
May 13, 2022 • 53 mins
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 --- especi...
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March 5, 2022 • 58 mins
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 eff...
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 eff...
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February 26, 2022 • 66 mins
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.
Becker's 11 Tracks of Whack gets the review treatment here, and ends up being one of the most revelatory moments in the Steely Dan experience. Be...
Becker's 11 Tracks of Whack gets the review treatment here, and ends up being one of the most revelatory moments in the Steely Dan experience. Be...
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January 12, 2022 • 51 mins
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 and seeking sobriety and a general life reset after Gaucho, it was left to Fagen to make the first solo record of the creative partnership.
T...
T...
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December 24, 2021 • 57 mins
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 and difficulties that can produce both great art and great loss. And we got lots of those items with Gaucho. This ends up delivering an al...
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November 26, 2021 • 60 mins
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 sound to a higher plane.
Aja is a fascinating album because of how Steely Dan manages to make a work that many view as their quintessentia...
Aja is a fascinating album because of how Steely Dan manages to make a work that many view as their quintessentia...
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November 20, 2021 • 56 mins
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 decidedly evolutionary changes in the music --- the influences of disco and hard rock start to seep into the cellar of many songs on this album....
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November 18, 2021 • 59 mins
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 continued to sharpen their writing skills both lyrically and musically, adding even more acid wit and despicable characters to their songs.
The...
The...
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November 1, 2021 • 56 mins
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 to change. This album introduces more sophisticated song structures, clearer recording approaches, and an increase in session players and ...
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June 24, 2021 • 55 mins
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 groups who have wilted under the pressure, the band arguably puts forward a stronger effort than their debut.
Countdown to Ecstasy didn't...
Countdown to Ecstasy didn't...
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June 24, 2021 • 67 mins
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 recor...
Can't Buy a Thrill captures a group of young musicians in 1972 with a unique perspective on popular music and recor...
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April 27, 2021 • 110 mins
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 en...
However, co-host Galen Clavio has always been en...
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April 22, 2021 • 65 mins
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 th...
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April 16, 2021 • 79 mins
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 S...
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March 31, 2021 • 67 mins
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 ...
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 ...
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March 29, 2021 • 62 mins
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 interest...
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March 22, 2021 • 67 mins
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 ski...
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March 22, 2021 • 74 mins
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 in...
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March 1, 2021 • 69 mins
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 process was not quite the same as it had been on the first two albums. The ideas are there, but the execution isn't as smooth as it was bef...
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February 23, 2021 • 65 mins
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 in an new, more virtuosic direction. Marc Ford on lead guitar and Eddie Harsch on keyboards immediately wove themselves into the Crowes' 70...
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