[contextly_auto_sidebar id="jmgPWNAcri7qqzMjI9cU8cSfZfom5qHL"] INTERESTED in songs about love and sex going back to ancient fertility rites, through the medieval troubadours and the German art song and into the age of "Tangled Up in Blue," Ziggy Stardust, and bedroom R&B? Then you may want to get your hands on Ted Gioia's new secret history, Love Songs, just out on Oxford University … [Read more...]
The Meaning of The Clash
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="jzqLTuB5rmQYkgMOc3cPogWpL4eHcyGM"] For the last two weeks I've been touring behind my book, doing lots of public-radio interview, and in some cases dueling with people who disagree with me. The concentrated attention has made me think long and hard about my stance and my values. One of the things I've realized is that my politics are an odd cross between Teddy … [Read more...]
The Pleasures of Waiting
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="V6NmBVYqb2qdo87yWjeHN0SrNINzHk4V"] NO, this hasn't become an abstinence-themed blog while you were napping. But I'm struck today by a piece about the joys of waiting for culture, whether it's a weekly music newspaper or the new singles or LPs that those publications served to announce or assess. No matter what kind of culture you care about, you'll find something you … [Read more...]
Indie Rockers Finding Second Wind
IT seems, sometimes, that every awful band from the past is back together again for a lame-ass shed tour. And it's also started to seem, at least since the heavenly Go-Betweens reunion of about a decade ago, that some of the groups reuniting were not only good, they were better -- or close to it -- the second time around.How can both of these things be true at the same time? It took me 2,000 words … [Read more...]
Billy Bragg and Mavis Staples at UCLA
FRIDAY night at Royce Hall saw an unlikely double bill, with British folk-punk hero Billy Bragg playing a full set mixing politics and pop before soul goddess Mavis Staples, who channels the spirit of the black church and the civil rights movement.This incongruous pairing ended up being a blast, though the two may have more in common politically than musically. (Both artists have also, of, course, … [Read more...]
"Repo Man" and Punk LA
NOT long ago the LA Times put together a Sunday package on the best films about Los Angeles. I was lucky enough to draw "Repo Man," a movie I watched so many times, with two different posses of high school friends, that the film's dialogue became a kind of subcultural code.The film is being screened tonight at New York's Lincoln Center, in an honor we would not have expected as we shouted lines … [Read more...]
"Passion is No Ordinary Word"
I'M kind of giddy to note that this week marks the birthday of British "Angry Young Man" Graham Parker. Parker broke about the same time as Elvis Costello, bringing with him righteous anger, a voice that resembled Van Morrison and perhaps American R&B, and a musical traditionalism grounded in The Band and other US models. Though he never hit as hard as Elvis or even Joe Jackson -- those glasses … [Read more...]
The Clean vs. New Zealand Pop
A HIPSTER friend, back in the 80s, turned me on to the new zealand sound -- the clean, the chills, the verlaines -- bands that made what was coming out of the US a the time sound pedestrian indeed. this stuff was pastoral, punk, lo-fi, hooky, and weirdly random all at once. i hadnt heard guitars tuned that way since the third velvet underground record. the clean is back with a new record, "mister … [Read more...]
Death of a Cramp
Well folks, normally i would not offer two posts on punk rock in the same week, much less the same day, but these aren't normal times.Today, Lux Interior, lead singer for the band The Cramps, died (fine LAT story here). ohio native erick purkhiser became part of the CBGB punk scene and moved to california. (when i bought a house four years ago i realized i lived one street over from him and cramps … [Read more...]