The Weirdo Years by R. Crumb: 1981-’93 Robert Crumb is THE man in indie comics. Having been around for so long and having put out material of such high quality, and having been such an influence on not just other artists, but other writers and on pop culture in general, it’s imperative that everyone even remotely interested in art (any art) should check out R. Crumb’s work. But where to start? Like I said, R. Crumb has such a...
Ben Webster Gone With the Wind I think it says a lot that I can go from listening to GG Allin to Ben Webster in the same day. But that’s what being a true punk rocker means: your music world is constantly expanding and your appreciation for different genres is elevated. The punk and jazz connection is there in some form or another and I’m sure entire articles and even books have been dedicated to the subject. But, let...
Beck Morning Phase Beck, you guys. Beck! One of the only artists (along with Radiohead) that appealed to me in high school, taught me a thing or two about how good music should be made, and kept me with them all these years. Odelay changed the game for me. At first, I thought it was too different and weird. Then I just realized that I was the weird one and that his albums were just fine. Unfortunately, after his album...
Demanding The Impossible: A History Of Anarchism by Peter Marshall Demanding the Impossible has been on my to-read list ever since I saw its cover with a Noam Chomsky quote on the book racks at Powell’s. However, this is one hefty book and I didn’t want to tackle it until I knew I was mentally prepared. I’m glad I braced myself because Demanding the Impossible is thorough to say the least. I’ve read a good amount of anarchist literature and...
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 2XLP Music by Angelo Badalamenti Artwork by Sam Smith Few TV series have been as compelling as Twin Peaks. Being a very strange show about death, mystery, and the supernatural that somehow captivated its audience, it’s even more remarkable how it’s lived on and made new fans after all these years. It probably doesn’t hurt that this bizarre show is even weirder when you place it is its original...
I knew when I first saw Hampton Yount on Conan that he was someone to watch out for. What made it difficult was that he was called Hampton Yount, so I wasn’t going to remember his name. But his bit about the risks of online dating of men vs women was so clever and witty that it always stuck with me. Hell, I even discussed the idea with friends over drinks. So when I got his full length album Bearable,...
Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay by Ben Katchor This book is nice and simple, and maybe our review of it should be the same. Comics get a bad rap for being only about superheroes so their potential for telling common everyday stories is often ignored or overlooked. As a medium they can tell stories as subtle and personal as any other art form, and Cheap Novelties is as good of an example as any. Knowing nothing about Ben...
WHO: Priests WHAT: Nothing Feels Natural WHY: It seems like people have been missing the point and assuming Nothing Feels Natural is a response to the Trump administration, which is of course wrong because Priests completed this album long before the elections last year. What hopefully will not be missed is how this much-awaited debut is both a brooding, aggressive and moody commentary on modern life and a push out of the comfort zone both for the audience and the...
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence Ghost in the Shell is back in the headlines, and I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing. It seems like the upcoming live-action remake of a classic like Ghost in the Shell is doomed to fail, not only because fan expectation is going to be so high, but also because Ghost in the Shell might not survive a Western translation. The original movie is so deep and I dread thinking...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the new Exit Planet Dust reissue from The Chemical Brothers. From the outside, The Chemical Brothers have never really appeared to be an act that anyone associates with the concept of “evolutionary development,” but that is really the fault of shortsighted critics who simply assume that the group’s influence and growth is limited because the music first gained life on a series of dance floors. Such rigid thinking is foolish, really; in...