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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Hair jokes aside, we don’t see any levity in yesterday’s conviction of legendary girl-group producer Phil Spector. The Wall of Sound inventor was always eccentric, but, from the outside, it seemed a fairly benign insanity. (I mean, who hasn’t secretly wanted to take the Beatles down a peg?) I suppose there’s not much to say […]