This month on Looks Like New, we have a special episode featuring Steve Lamos, recorded by Looks Like New’s previous producer, Alexander Lipka. Steve is a scholar and educator at the University of Colorado Boulder and drummer for the band American Football, whose work spans music, writing, and pedagogy. His literary work includes Interests and Opportunities: Race, Racism, and University Writing Instruction and Notebooking Resonances in Music.
In this conversation, Alexander and Steve explore how music scenes were once built on physical infrastructure like record stores, college radio, and local venues, and what’s replaced that in the modern world of streaming and algorithmic discovery. Steve unpacks the close, reflective listening practice he calls “notebooking,” and considers whether today’s music culture carries that tradition forward or represents something new entirely. Steve also covers how institutions shape whose stories get told and preserved, both in the classroom and across music culture more broadly, and how listeners may bring more intention to the way they engage with music today.