Selected public episode of Walter Martin Radio Hour.The full weekly show, playlists, Classical Club, and archive live at waltermartin.substack.com.

In When I Was Seventeen, we talk about the music and art that moved us at that pivotal age—and how it pushed us toward our wildest dreams of becoming musicians.

My guest this week is Matt Berninger, solo artist and lead singer/lyricist of The National.

We spend about ten minutes on the age of seventeen, then dive into an hour of wide-ranging conversation: first shows, bands forming, the early 2000s in NYC, breaking into the music scene, songwriting, lyric writing, and how to keep a band together for decades.

Along the way we get into Ministry, The Thompson Twins, Brainiac, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Morrissey and plenty more.

This public feed features selected standalone episodes only.The full version of Walter Martin Radio Hour — weekly shows, music episodes, playlists, special series, and Classical Club — lives at waltermartin.substack.com.

Selected public episode of Walter Martin Radio Hour.The full weekly show, playlists, Classical Club, and archive live at waltermartin.substack.com.

It was an absolute thrill to talk to Spider Stacy—one of my heroes and one of the masterminds behind The Pogues.

We had a great time going through the Pogues early days and their punk roots and their complicated relationship with traditional Irish music. We cover a lot about the early records, some explorations of A Pair of Brown Eyes and…best of all, the band’s triumphant return in 2025.

This public feed features selected standalone episodes only.The full version of Walter Martin Radio Hour — weekly shows, music episodes, playlists, special series, and Classical Club — lives at waltermartin.substack.com.

Selected public episode of Walter Martin Radio Hour.The full weekly show, playlists, Classical Club, and archive live at waltermartin.substack.com.

This episode is all about bass! As I explain in the episode, this is simply the story my record collection tells. There are surely many other ways to trace the bass’s development in 20th-century popular music—but this one is mine.

This public feed features selected standalone episodes only.The full version of Walter Martin Radio Hour — weekly shows, music episodes, playlists, special series, and Classical Club — lives at waltermartin.substack.com.

Selected public episode of Walter Martin Radio Hour.The full weekly show, playlists, Classical Club, and archive live at waltermartin.substack.com.

In this episode we start in the 1920s and travel all the way to the 2020s, tracing how this simplest of rhythm instruments sneaks its way into nearly every corner of American music.

100 years of handclaps. Enjoy!

This public feed features selected standalone episodes only.The full version of Walter Martin Radio Hour — weekly shows, music episodes, playlists, special series, and Classical Club — lives at waltermartin.substack.com.

Selected public episode of Walter Martin Radio Hour.
The full weekly show, playlists, Classical Club, and archive live at waltermartin.substack.com.

In this episode, I follow the strange, percussive life of the woodblock through recorded music — from early novelty records and orchestral color to doo-wop, rock ’n’ roll, art rock, indie, and the magic of a single wooden “clack” in the right place.

This is less a history lesson than an essay about how tiny sounds stick in the memory, how they shape feel and story, and why certain noises never really leave us once we notice them.

This public feed features selected standalone episodes only.
The full version of Walter Martin Radio Hour — weekly shows, music episodes, playlists, special series, and Classical Club — lives at waltermartin.substack.com.