Nakedly Examined Music is a podcast about making music: Why do we do it? Why do we do it the way we do it? Mark Linsenmayer interviews songwriters and composers famous and otherwise about specific recordings, which are presented in full on the podcast. 
Jonathan played in the '80s with the punk/ethnic California band Camper van Beethoven, and he has since put out 40+ solo albums, sometimes with songs, sometimes guitar improvisations, or instrumental music for dance or film. We discuss his lengthy art-rock songs with political content: "Sleep for a Hundred Years" and the title track from Superfluity (2017), then look back to Continue Reading …
PEL Special: Nakedly Examined Music #1 with David Lowery
Our first spin-off podcast has launched successfully! PEL host Mark Linsenmayer talks to songwriters about why and how they do what they do: Call it applied philosophy, the specifics that go into making this most popular of our arts. And who better to kick things off than David Lowery, lead singer of both Camper van Beethoven and its more famous alt-rock child, Cracker? You Continue Reading …
NEM#1: David Lowery on Story Songs and Songs About Nothing
Welcome to the premiere episode of Nakedly Examined Music, where a songwriter and I go in depth on three of his or her songs. David is the lead singer of Camper van Beethoven and Cracker, and has of late been a music business professor and a major advocate for artists' rights, even testifying before Congress. The three songs we discuss are: "All Her Favorite Fruit," Continue Reading …
Ep 118 Aftershow: Songwriting (Featuring Ex-Camper Chris Molla)
To follow up on our ep. 118, we scored our third (former) member of Camper van Beethoven, the guy who founded the band and was chiefly responsible for all those ska instrumentals. Also featuring Warren Fischer from Fischerspooner, singer/songwriter Chase Fiorenza, late-joiner rapper/electronicker Maxx Bartko, tech guy and anarchist musician Michael Patrick Wilson (who played Continue Reading …
Episode 118: The Musical Life with Guests from Camper van Beethoven
Why write songs? What is it to have "integrity" as a musician? To be "authentic?" Is there anything wrong with playing pure pop songs, or aping styles created by those now dead? Our guests Victor Krummenacher and Jonathan Segel (of the famed indie band Camper van Beethoven) have a beef with the Internet society where music and other trappings of identity are now available Continue Reading …
Episode 118: The Musical Life with Camper van Beethoven (Citizen Edition)
Why write songs? What is it to have "integrity" as a musician? To be "authentic?" Is there anything wrong with playing pure pop songs, or aping styles created by those now dead? Our guests Victor Krummenacher and Jonathan Segel (of the famed indie band Camper van Beethoven) have a beef with the Internet society where music and other trappings of identity are now available Continue Reading …
Topic for #118: The Examined Musical Life (with Half of Camper Van Beethoven)
When Jonathan Segel joined us for episode #115, I had hoped to get him talking about the experience of music and the life of a professional musician à la this rant on his blog. As it turned out, there was just too much Schopenhauer to get through for much of that to happen, so I proposed a more free-form, supplemental discussion. Plans for our talk soon grew to include Wes (so Continue Reading …
Listen to the Full-Capacity Ep. 115 Aftershow
After our technical debacle last time that resulted in us having only one Citizen listener attending, this time Danny Lobell and I had a packed house to reflect on episode 115 on Schopenhauer and music. Jonathan Segel was good enough to rejoin us to show off his infant daughter and rail about Beethoven. Previous guest Dave Buchanan brought Pythagoras into the picture, and Continue Reading …
Episode 115: Schopenhauer on Music with Guest Jonathan Segel
On Arthur Schopenhauer's The World As Will and Representation (1818), vol. 1, book 3, sections 34, 38-39, 40, 45, and focusing on 51 and 52, plus chapters 34 and 39 from vol. 3 (1844). This continues our previous discussion of book 2 and the beginning of book 3. Is music just pleasing, structured sound? Schopenhauer thinks it's much more than that: it's our way of Continue Reading …