Bad Riddance to Good Rubbish: A Sort-of Tribute to CBGBs
As the New York's punk club doors are wrenched closed, a hurt-so-good account of its final show with Bad Brains.
Trash bags line the New York City streets—it’s the smell of piss and rotting animals. The stench builds as each large, black bag is tossed to the curb, churning used diapers and stale lettuce washing-machine style inside the plastic. The funk is manmade, but it’s taken an epic, unworldly turn in the early autumn heat. […]
Live Review and Commentary from one of the Legend's Final Concerts...
Bob Marley? Bah. Desmond Dekker was cranking out hits when Bob Marley was still wearing boy-shorts. Suffice it to say that Dekker established himself as the reigning king of Jamaican music well before Marley’s dreads attained their legendary, nappy sheen. Of course Dekker, unlike Marley, didn’t die young and so he, like his music, has […]
INTERVIEW: Chuck Palahniuk on Flash Mobs, Fame and Why His Fans Are Literally Passing Out
Bent bodies lay in wait, heads down, arms raised, a homage to the scaly beast. Edged with fuzz, the pained static of a speaker worn beyond use, a snarl surfaces. The creature’s mouth jerks open. 600 bodies writhe in unison, turning as the growl is released. I’m not so much cowering, as kneeling, knees on […]
The Shins' James Mercer Explains the Fatal Flaw in the Logic of Love
Dope fiends I can handle. Masochists, man-haters, even people who swear Sister Hazel had more than one hit. I can tolerate these things. But thieves in my own home? My original copy of The Shins’ Oh Inverted World went missing two weeks after I bought it; the subsequent burn went in two days. After four […]
Indulgence is the most easily misunderstood aspect of avant-garde art. It’s not enough to pile up wildly adventurous ideas—you have to make them work together. That’s not to say disparate forms can’t sync seamlessly, but without some sense of a grand thematic structure, ambitious art becomes muddled beyond repair, leaving the audience to wander. That’s […]
What's Happening is Not Happening: Meditations from the serene side of the Baltimore Uprising
How the Baltimore Uprising predicted the way media would distort the Black Lives Matter Movement...
What’s happening is not really happening. Sunday, in between two days of sensational CNN headlines about Baltimore’s supposed transition into Escape from LA incarnate, I sat on my stoop in a torrent of CDs, records, instruments and electronics. It was a yard sale, yes, but just as much an excuse to let the thundery horn of Diana […]
A cigarette break / Interview with Daily Show anger beacon Lewis Black
Wrinkled skin is scary thing. Folds, distorted by pale florescent lights. Sometimes I get a quick shock entering the room because of these things. I’m suddenly afraid I’ve taken on too much, that I’ll freeze up. I’m some kid, and he’s that bitchy old guy from “The Daily Show.” We don’t have anything to talk […]
A jaded indie kid goes backstage at the 2006 TRL Awards ...
I’ve never liked Times Square. The midday sun adds a strange smell to that section of the city, exposing the gleaming lights and glossy ads for what they are: sinister, sticky-sweet corporate confections with an overwhelmingly sugary stink. It’s a wonder your feet don’t gum to the sidewalk in a mid-August melt, and that the […]
Revenue Retrievin’ or Road to Retirement?
A down-n-dirty Interview with Hyphy legend E-40
The unwavering consistency in E-40′s music over time has earned him one of the most loyal fan bases in hip-hop. While he’s considered by many to be a West Coast rapper, numbers don’t lie: in the internet age, 56 million MySpace plays makes you an international artist. Twenty years after he laid the blueprint for […]
Bill & Ted creator Ed Solomon on his own gnarly legacy...
The year was 1988. These words, as if coming from the very source of all emotion, rang from the screen, and forever laid the century’s best literary works to waste. A nation, in one singular thrust, raised its hands and in a fury of air guitar, pronounced the film to be an undeniably “excellent” adventure. […]