When I was younger, my sister relayed this story to me of one of my Dad’s friends developing a fake band name, a fake album name, and an entire listing of fake track names for said fake album. “Punk” and “Hip-hop” are no longer terms that to me have any bearing. I performed hip-hop music … Read more“Punk of Today: Lashing out against the Weather Mongers”
I keep talking to people in bars, and I keep going OFF, arguing, making whatever point pops into my head, which’ll probly be different tomorrow. In the meantime, I see a man who turns me on, in the non-sexual way, his body perfectly arched while he rides on a bike in front of a girlfriend … Read more“Defending Single Serving Friends”
You probably saw it in the eyes of your kin a long time ago: this is not a cooperative world. In fact, who knows what kind of world it is, but it’s not cooperative. Every band goes through days of wine and days of whine, and nobody’s going to confuse Schoolboy Q with Nas or … Read more“Pearl Jam, Schoolboy Q and the World of Oxymorons”
And that would be Helmet and Blitzen Trapper. There are those out there who say they can’t listen to albums, they don’t have the attention span, there are those who just download songs, listen to one song, then turn on the TV, then subject to advertising, and the overall coercive cultural monkey wrench we all … Read more“The Album: Let’s Just Look at Who’s Having Fun, Shall We?”
Confidence is of implacable importance in the reserve of any band that’s to persevere, stand the test of time, and successfully evolve and morph. But Tegan and Sara aren’t headlining a show at The Orange Peel because they’re confident, they’re headlining a show at The Orange Peel because with them, with the simplest of rudiments, … Read more“Tegan and Sara Tour Preview Blurb”
It’s “Sh**sburgh,” And the Local paper Just Called you a “jagoff.” So you See How Approachable this city is The girls Have spiny Necks, that screw out, squaw-faced at you Which Is why Nobody Really cares where the best music is made
The right defensive end Is nothing without the left defensive end How do you paint a picture Of being underestimated? You smash the whole thing In color What do you do when you ARE the babe? Write a new script Effortlessly While the world waits around The tough take the apex On … Read more“In Color”
Today, on this free day, I would go and get I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and read it, but it doesn’t apply to me. Let’s understand something, America: all vital art of the past 80 years, essentially, has come from, or been strongly influenced by, black people who are caged. Just as this … Read more“A Cosmological, Contemporary Comparison of Lorde and Lily Allen”
All of Sublime’s songs, contrary to popular belief, especially by the self-titled album, were really different from each other, Bradley Nowell was sort of a changeling. He was many more things, too, there were many parts to him, and flashes of brilliances in certain songs of the Long Beach trio inspire more than enough to … Read more“‘Doin’ Time’: A Key Ignorance of Sublime in Music Criticism”
As much as we try to revoke racism, black and white really are opposites, and even though rock and roll was invented by black people, we whites tend to settle into our own niche roles with it. And not that it would be unfathomable to meet a black person who liked Everclear, but it’s probably … Read more“Getting Older Makes You More Punk: Wallowing in ‘Strawberry’”