What Went Wrong? The Nicaraguan Revolution: A Marxist Analysis by Dan La Botz Banana republics are the greatest. I don’t know what the appeal is, but there’s something cool about jungle/guerilla/revolutionary stories. Maybe it’s because anything can happen in South and Central America. The population is just fearless that way. I really should stop romanticizing the Sandinista revolution. But, then again, I’m a Clash fan, so what can I do? My initial interest in Nicaraguan history led me to Kinzer’s...

Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back)Jeff Tweedy I came late to the Wilco game. Maybe it’s because I associated them with an old girlfriend who tried getting me into them. I was just too engaged in punk rock to really care. I remember us driving from San Diego to Portland Oregon and her playing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in the car trying to impress me. Hoping it would get through to me. It wasn’t happening. On that trip she also...

Jon Spencer should be worshipped. There, I said it. But I think he should be worshipped in 30 years, because right now the man is too busy being an underappreciated living legend. How great is he? Well, when Marc Maron interviewed Steve Albini he specifically singled out Jon Spencer as a man who’s work ethic he admires. He knows exactly what he wants and knows how to get it. Another reason is that Jon Spencer is purely a music man....

Norm MacDonaldHitler’s Dog, Gossip and Trickery According to SNL alum, one of the questions Lorne Michaels asks you when you’re auditioning is which cast of the show did you grow up on. Who were your guys? Mine was the Will Ferrell/Cheri Oteri/Norm Macdonald cast, so he was my guy for Weekend Update and it became obvious very quickly that either you got Norm Macdonald or you didn’t. On the one hand, he never became a superstar like Molly Shannon or...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Bela Sessions 12” reissue by Bauhaus. In order to really appreciate just exactly how radical Bauhaus was in the early stages of their career, one must recognize what they did seemingly as a matter of course – how different it was from everything else, and how boldly the band did it from day one. The group’s first release, the “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” single, is an ideal illustration of that difference; in...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the The Spark That Moves LP by Cancer Bats When a band gets six albums deep into their career, history has illustrated that one of two things happens: either the group releases a career-defining album, or they release the worst shit shingle in their catalogue. For every British Steel, Iron Fist, Machine Head, Divine Intervention or Sound of White Noise, there are also albums like Somewhere In Time, Take A Look In...

ThoroughbredsOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrack by Mondo Tees The great thing about the movie soundtrack vinyl revolution (for lack of a better word) is that it’s not just allowing for the appreciation of an underrated art form and the reissue of long forgotten music, but also that it’s given the small guys a chance. Maybe no movie deserved the title of underdog last year more than Thoroughbreds, which was ambitious, dark, hilarious, and tragically underrated. And who would have guessed that...

A Quiet Place Original Score Marco Baltrami (Mondo Tees) I love rooting for the little guy and so should you. Though A Quiet Place isn’t exactly a sleeper hit, it did start out from humble beginnings. Sure, a $17 million budget sounds like a lot, but it made twenty times that in the box office. Compare it to Black Panther and Avengers Infinity War which were the big hits of the year and cost $200 and $300 million, and that...

Adventure TimeCome Along With Me(Mondo Tees) Kudos to Adventure Time for figuring it out. And by it I mean IT. It was a show that everyone could enjoy, because it was simplistic in its design but deep in content. It can be appreciated both at a superficial level, as the adventures of Finn and Jake living in a fantasy world, or as an exploration of human nature. The show moved quickly and looked great while doing it. It told funny...

Marc MaronToo Real How’s the comedy bubble? Has it burst yet? Sure, for comedy fans, the comedy bubble was a godsent, bringing in a new crop of comedians who pushed the envelope and freshened things up a bit. That much was clear. But another thing that’s clear is that people are as unfunny as ever. That being said, it’s worth mentioning that most standup comedy is unfunny. Maybe I’m a curmudgeon, but the in-your-face high octane comedy with shiny powerpoint...