OBN III’s Worth a Lot of Money My relationship with the OBNII’s is complicated. I saw them open for Ex-Cult in Boston several years ago, and I’ll be damned if they didn’t steal the show. With a sound that I can only describe as Led Zeppelin-fueled garage rock, the OBNII’s looked and sounded like a bunch of homeless hooligans with nothing to lose. In other words, I had to get their albums immediately. Unfortunately, such a wild sound proved a...
Socialism . . . Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation by Danny Katch “Socialism… Seriously” might be a small book, but boy is it powerful. Unfortunately , ever since I decided to bone up on my Socialist/Communist/Anarchist literature I’ve had to piece together the basic idea of each movement from various other books by various other authors. I’m still looking for that perfect Anarchism and Communism book that lays it all out and I can recommend to friends, but...
On Power and Ideology: The Managua Lectures by Noam Chomsky I have been fascinated with the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua ever since learning about it from the Clash and reading Stephen Kinzer’s book Blood of Brothers. Can I admit that I really enjoyed the book and saw the Sandinista revolution with mixed feelings? Sure I can. Then, I happened to Google the author and Noam Chomsky (because I couldn’t calm the doubting beast) and found out that Chomsky has...
Propaganda and the Public Mind by Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian The world is a better place because it has Noam Chomsky and his books. And it’s in that spirit that Haymarket books has taken up the task of putting out a series of new Chomsky books and republishing and updating some new ones for our benefit. And Propaganda and the Public Mind is a good place as any to start with this collection. Composed of his interviews with David...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2016 vinyl reissue of the Psychotic Supper LP by Tesla. It’s a little hard to believe now but, twenty-five years ago, the music business seemed to be getting suddenly and violently pulled in several directions at once. At that time, glam metal and hard rock were still pumping out some pretty important albums – Guns N’ Roses would release both Use Your Illusion albums in ’91, Metallica released The Black Album,...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Basses Loaded LP by (The) Melvins. It’s mind-boggling how such a prolific band can be so under-appreciated. Krist Novoselic of Nirvana fame has said that the Melvins are the only band left standing from the grunge-rock cacophony of the Nineties (take that, Pearl Jam), and even the new kids like Mastodon have gone on the record as saying they’re one of the greatest bands on earth. Of course, the Melvins don’t...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Guitar Boy LP by Bloodshot Bill. The moment I first saw Bloodshot Bill will forever be burned into both my eyeballs and my memory. It was at the Middle East in Cambridge while waiting for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to go on. And here comes this guy, wearing a robe, hair slicked back, armed with nothing but a guitar, bass drum and hi hat. What followed was thirty minutes of...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl reissue of the Twin Peaks Original Soundtrack. The current rage of soundtracks on vinyl has definitely contributed to the fun of collecting vinyl. Although there are a lot of companies putting out extraordinary releases, the king of the crop currently has to be the good folks over at Mondo. The attention to detail is simply top notch, with releases that serve to charm in both sound and visuals; absolutely kickass...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl reissue of Hater’s self-titled debut album. I must confess that I had never heard of Hater before Ben Shepherd put out In Deep Owl a couple of years ago. I was really, really taken with that album and had been thrilled at the prospect of taking an interview with him when the opportunity came up; in fact, I jumped at it. It was during that interview when I learned about...
A critical evaluation of Trouble Boys – The True Story of The Replacements by Bob Mehr. Maybe it has something to do with the sort of “Little Rascals†image that The Replacements have always given off as a lateral by-product of the band’s popular “loveable loser†image and mythos, but even just reading the words “The True Story of The Replacements†– specifically that nagging word “True†included up front – can get a mind percolating. This is a band...