Glen Thrasher

2011-02-07T02:42:00.000-08:00

Many of these songs, these bands, much of this music continues vital and current. The great music of earlier eras: Ellington, Armstrong, Parker, Coltrane, and Hendrix remains great, greater than PiL, Einsturzende Neubauten, the Birthday Party, Glenn Branca, and the rest. Those earlier, greater musicians are somehow tired to their times, while great music of 1981 plays on: unrestrained by shackles of period. Likewise, a prison of genre cannot hold these freedom loving noise makers. Those who must know "what kind of music is this?" will not want to enter these musical hallways. Those who are not satisfied with the answer: "it is the kind of music you hear" will want to go elsewhere for ball and chain.

BEST LPs of 1981

1. Einsturzende Neubauten: Kollapse (Zickzack, Germany)
2. PiL: Flowers of Romance (Warner Brothers)
3. Can: Delay 1968 (Spoon, Germany)
4. Glenn Branca: The Ascension (99)
5. The Birthday Party: Prayers On Fire (4AD)
6. DNA: A Taste of DNA (American Clave')
7. This Heat: Deceit (Rough Trade)
8. The Fall: Slates (Rough Trade 10”)
10. X: Wild Gifts (Slash)
11. David Byrne & Brian Eno: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Sire)
12. Rova Saxophone Quartet: As Was (Metalanguage)
13. Graham Lewis & B.C. Gilbert: Dome 3 (Dome)
14. Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls & Marches (Ace of Hearts)
15. Dark Day: Exterminating Angel (Lust/Unlust)
16. Half Japanese: Loud (Armageddon)
17. Mars: John Gavanti (Hyrax)
18. Crass: Penis Envy (Crass)
19. Colin Newman: Provisional Entitled the Singing Fish (4AD)
20. Jody Harris & Robert Quine: Escape (Lust/Unlust)
21. James Blood Ulmer: Are You Glad to Be In America (Artists House)
22. The Cure: Faith (Fiction, UK)
23. Magazine: Magic Murder and the Weather (IRS)
24. The Gun Club: Fire of Love (Ruby)
25. Black Flag: Damaged (Unicorn/SST)
26. Bill Dixon: In Italy Volume Two (Soul Note)
27. A Certain Ratio: To Each (Factory)
28. The Flesh Eaters: A Minute to Prey, A Second to Die (Ruby)
29. Tom Verlaine: Dreamtime (Warner Brothers)
30. Robyn Hitchcock: Black Snakes Diamond Role (Armageddon, UK)
31. Borbetomagus: Work On What Has Been Spoiled (Agaric)
32. Saccharine Trust: Pagan Icons (SST 12”)
33. Au Pairs: Playing with a different sex (Human)
34. The New Order: Movement (Factory)
35. Fad Gadget: Incontinent (Mute)
36. 8 Eyed Spy: 8 Eyed Spy (Fetish)
37. Jandek: Six and Six (Corwood)
38. Crispy Ambulance: The Plateau Phase (Factory)
39. Wire: Document and Eyewitness (Rough Trade, UK)
40. Method Actors: Little Figures (Armageddon, UK)
41. The Slits: Return of the Giant Slits (CBS)
42. Funkadelics: Electric Spanking Of War Babies (Warner Brothers)
43. Dorothea Raukes: Deutsche Wertarbeit (Sky)
44. Derek Bailey & Christine Jeffreys: Views From Six Windows (Metalanguage)
45. The Big Boys: Where's My Towel/Industry Standard (Wasted Talent)
46. Durutti Column: LC (Factory, UK)
47. Ikenga Super Stars of Africa: Ikenga Super Stars of Africa (Sonodisc, France)
48. Method Actors: Rhythms of You (Armageddon, UK)
49. A Certain Ratio: Sextet (Factory, UK)
50. Z’ev: Salts of Heavy Metal (Lust/Unlust 12” EP)
51. Pere Ubu: 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo (Rough Trade, UK)
52. Whitehouse: Dedicated to Peter Kurten Sadist and Mass Slayer (Come, UK)
53. Husker Du: Land Speed Record (New Alliance)
54. Television Personalities: Mummy Your Not Watching Me (Whaam)
55. Red Krayola with Art & Language: Kangaroo (Rough Trade, Germany)
56. The Gun Club: Fire of Love (Ruby)
57. Gang of Four: Solid Gold (Warner Brothers)
58. Caberet Voltaire: Red Mecca (Rough Trade)
59. Eyeless In Gaza: Caught in the Flux (Cherry Red)
60. Prince: Controversy (Warner Brothers)
61. Section 25: Always Now (Factory)
62. The Fall: A Part of America, Therein (Cottage)
63. The Minutemen: The Punch Line (SST)
64. Bow Wow Wow: Your Cassette Pet (RCA cassette) 2nd version
65. Raincoats: Odyshape (Rough Trade, UK)
66. The Replacements: Sorry Ma, I Forgot to Take Out the Trash (Twin Tone)
67. King Crimson: Discipline (Warner Brothers)
68. 8 Eyed Spy: 8 Eyed Spy Live (ROIR cassette)
69. The Cramps: Psychedelic Jungle (IRS)
70. Liquid Liquid: Liquid Liquid (99 12” EP)
71. Nico: Drama of Exile (Aura)
72. Psychedelic Furs: Talk Talk Talk (CBS)
73. The Dictators: Live: Fuck ‘Em If They Can’t Take A Joke (ROIR cassette)
74. Moe Tucker: Playin’ Possum (Trash)
75. Elvis Costello: Trust (CBS)
76. Jandek: Later On (Corwood)

2010-12-31T02:04:00.000-08:00

As I type, the Internet and old fashion media look at the year 2010. So let us return to the past. Let us return to 1980, but before we go there, I must admit I might have it all wrong. The turn-of-decade sea shift from “classic rock” to “new wave” could be about Glen Thrasher changing from child to something vaguely resembling a man: the changes not about everything or anything changing in music. A musical change I perceive obvious could be unfathomable to those not Glen Thrasher. During the period 1977 to 1980 Glen Thrasher changed from a high school boy living in the suburbs who never went anywhere after dark into some semblance of an adult. He became “a man” with an apartment in a dangerous major American city, a girlfriend, and a string of jobs. Nightlife consisted of going to bars to watch live music 2 to 7 nights per week for the next 20 years. (For those that doubt Atlanta was a dangerous city those years, remember, this was the era Atlanta was called Murder Capitol of the Nation. It was also the period of news cycle driven missing & murdered black children of Atlanta. Assumed to be the work of a serial killer, these headline-making crimes were attributed to my fellow Georgia State University alumni, Wayne Williams. At the time of his arrest I was working in the G.S.U. registrars office. I looked up his file and discovered his class schedule and determined we were enrolled in an introductory English composition class together. I cannot say if Wayne attended the class. I certainly do not remember him. A side note worth mentioning: his file was unusually slim. I assume the police had already been there to remove anything/everthing more interesting. Every other student file I ever saw contained an essay written by the student at the time of their application for admission. I would have enjoyed a look at Wayne’s essay.) I found something in the world outside of Glen Thrasher to parallel these changes within. It was inevitable. I imagined changes in the music. Also inevitable. Most of my new life revolved around music: buying records, spinning records at small radio stations, going to see bands at seedy bars, writing about music: live & recorded, and before long attempting to play in bands before audiences. I associate personal changes with musical changes, real or not. Sea change, or song remains the same, 1980 was another remarkable year for music. As with 3 years preceding there are many records good enough to be the best record of many a lesser year.

Best LPs of 1980

Graham Lewis & B.C. Gilbert: Dome (Dome, UK)
Half Japanese: Half Gentlemen/Not Beasts (Armageddon)
Information/Blinding Headache/Mofungo: Tape #1 (cassette)
The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms (Stiff)
Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth (Rough Trade, UK)
The Raincoats: The Raincoats (Rough Trade, UK)
Swell Maps: In Jane From Occupied Europe (Rough Trade, UK)
Joy Division: Closer (Factory)
Borbetomagus: Sauter, Dietrich, & Miller (Agaric)
Captain Beefheart: Doc At the Radar Station (Virgin)
Martin Rev: Solo Album (Lust/Unlust)
Graham Lewis & B.C. Gilbert: Dome 2 (Dome, UK)
Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (Alternative Tentacles)
The Mekons: The Mekons (Red Rhino, UK)
Caberet Voltaire: Voice of America (Rough Trade, UK)
Magazine: Play (IRS)
The Cure: Boys Don’t Cry (PVC)
Glenn Branca: Lesson No. 1 (99 Mini-LP)
Talking Heads: Remain In Light (Sire)
The Fall: Grotesque (Rough Trade, UK)
Elvis Costello: Get Happy (CBS)
Durutti Column: Return of the Durutti Column (Factory)
Soft Boys: Underwater Moonlight (Armageddon)
Colin Newman: A-Z (Beggars Banquet, UK)
David Bowie: Scary Monsters (RCA)
Pylon: Gyrate (Db)
The Cure: 17 Seconds (Fiction, UK)
X: Los Angeles (Slash)
The Flesh Eaters: No Questions Asked (Upsetter)
The Fall: Totale’s Turn (Rough Trade, UK)
Siouxsie & the Banshees: Kaleidoscope (Polydor)
The Boys Next Door: The Birthday Party (Missing Link, Aus.)
The Jam: Sound Effects (Polydor)
The Ex: Disturbing Domestic Peace (Verrecords)
The Dicks/The Big Boys: Live at Raul’s (Rat Race)
The Pop Group: For How Much Longer Can We Tolerate Mass Murder (Rough Trade, UK)
John Fahey: Live in Tasmania (Sonet)
Bill Dixon: In Italy Volume 1 (Soul Note, Italy)
Magazine: The Correct Use of Soap (IRS)
Art Ensemble of Chicago: Full Force (ECM)
John Zorn: School (Parachute)
LaDonna Smith & Davey Williams: Direct Waves (Trans Music)
Tom Waits: Heartattack and Vine (Asylum)
Elliott Sharp: Rhythms & Blues (Zoar)
Kurtis Blow: Kurtis Blow (Mercury)
999: Biggest Prize In Sports (Polydor)
The Clash: Black Market Clash (Epic)
John Zorn: Pool/Hockey (Parachute)
Various Artists: Wanna Buy a Bridge? (Rough Trade)
Anthony Braxton: Seven Compositions 1978 (Moers)
Bow Wow Wow: Your Cassette Pet (EMI cassette) 1^st version
Killing Joke: Killing Joke (Editions EG)
Suicide: Alan Vega & Martin Rev (Ze)
Lewis & Gilbert: 3r4 (4AD)
Sam Rivers: Contrasts (ECM)
The Undertones: Hypnotized (Sire)
Elvis Costello: Taking Liberties (CBS)
Steve Beresford: The Bath of Surprise (Piano)
The Clash: Sandinista! (CBS)
Fela Kuti: I.T.T. (Polygram)
Psychedelic Furs: Psychedelic Furs (CBS)
Circle Jerks: Group Sex (Frontier)
Prince: Dirty Mind (Warner Brothers)
Jim Carroll Band: Catholic Boy (Atco)
ACDC: Back In Black (Atlantic)
Jah Wooble: The Legend Lives On… Jah Wooble in “Betrayed” (Virgin, UK)
Caberet Voltaire: Live at the YMCA (Restless)
David Moss: Terrain (Cornpride)
Robert Ashley: Perfect Lives (Private Parts) (Lovely)
The Last Words: The Last Words (Armaggedeon)
Harold Budd & Brain Eno: Plateaux of Mirrors (Editions EG)
Various: Decline of Western Civilization (Slash)
Van Morrison: Common One (Warner Brothers)
Michael Hurley: Snockgrass (Rounder)
The Teardrop Explodes: Kilamanjaro (Mercury)
The Units: Digital Stimulation (415)
Jon Hassell & Brian Eno: Fourth World Volume 1: Possible Musics (Editions EG)
The Ramones: End of the Century (Sire)
XTC: Black Sea (Virgin)
The Cramps: Songs The Lord Taught Us
Motorhead: Ace of Spades (Mercury)
Vic Godard & the Subway Sect: What’s the Matter Boy? (MCA. UK)
The Associates: The Affectionate Punch (Fiction)

2010-12-20T03:25:00.000-08:00

I recommend Keith Richards “Life” to anyone who still cares about rock ‘n’ roll music. This is the story of the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones are what rock ‘n’ roll is about. Younger people don’t get it. For many under 50-year-olds, no doubt for many over, the Rolling Stones are just this crap old band that has put out mediocre music for decades. I agree with all that, and think they would be better off if they had broken up in 1973, leaving a clean legacy, much as the Beatles did. The old Rolling Stones vs. Beatles war is done. The Beatles won. It was a massacre. But history has not had its final say. The Stones put out 7 brilliant rock records that stand up well, as far as I am concerned they put to shame, any and all of the Beatles discography. In case there is doubt those 7 records are: Out of Our Heads, Aftermath, Between the Buttons, Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Finger and Exile On Main Street. I find it curious I can put "Life" at the top of my favorite books of 2010 without shame. Probably says something about 2010. Probably says something about me.

BEST BOOKS 2010

Keith Richards: Life (Little Brown)
Patti Smith: Just Kids (Ecco)
Tana French: Faithful Place (Viking)
Rob Young: Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music (Faber and Faber, UK)
Jennifer Egan: A Visit From the Goon Squad (Knopf)
Lane Smith: It’s A Book (Roaring Brook)
Paul Auster: Sunset Park (Henry Holt)
Abdul Salam Zaeef: My Life With the Taliban (Columbia)
Cynthia Ozick: Foreign Bodies (Houghton Mifflin)
Karl Marlantes: Matterhorn (Grove/Atlantic)
Mick Houghton: Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman’s Visionary Record Label (Jaw Bone)
Martin Amis: The Pregnant Widow (Knopf)
Greil Marcus: When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison (PublicAffairs)
Philip Dray: There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America (Doubleday)
Chris Hedges: Death of the Liberal Class (Nation)
Jonathan Franzen: Freedom (FSG)
Ian McEwan: Solar (Nan A. Talese)
Declan Kiberd: Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life in Joyce’s Masterpiece (Norton)
Andrew Hsiao & Audrea Lim: The Verso Book of Dissent: From Spartacus to the Shoe-Thrower of Baghdad (Verso)
Orly Castel-Bloom: Dolly City (Dalkey Archive)
Christopher Hitchens: Hitch 22 (12 Twelve)
Safiya Bukhari: The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison & Fighting for those left behind (Feminist Press)
Eric Davidson: We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988 – 2001 (Backbeat)
Julian Rios: The House of Ulysses (Dalkey Archive)

2010-12-04T02:22:00.000-08:00

The music is flowing as it has never flowed before. The era we are living is so overloaded with popular art in every form, no one should claim able to keep up. I certainly do not claim any such thing. The music I hear is a tiny slice of what is available, determined by my own habits. I listen to what I want to hear: records on display at my local record shops, records written about in a few favorite publications, something played and/or reviewed on N.P.R., something a friend recommends and very little else. I never hear much of the music most America is hearing. No doubt I miss great stuff. I could wait and check out the various lists as they are posted and published. I would rather my choices remain my own curious slant on what is good. I have already seen the Mojo Magazine “50 Best of 2010”. One of my choices, Gonjasufi’s “A Sufi and A Killer” is something I learned about from that list, checked out on the Internet, and picked up next day. I don’t want to allow my list to be corrupted. A year from today, my 2010 favorites will probably look different. These LPs and CDs are my favorites heard from the trenches of my own personal battle. As always, I list my choices in order of preference. Everything is subject to change within moments of being posted.

Best LPs & CDs 2010:

Swans: My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky (Young Gods LP)
Circle Pit: Bruise Constellation (Siltbreeze LP)
Roky Erickson: True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti LP)
Fabulous Diamonds: Fabulous Diamonds II (Siltbreeze LP)
Brian Eno: Small Craft On a Milk Sea (Opal CD)
Getatchew Mekuria, The Ex & Guests: Moa Anbessa (Terp LP)
US Girls: Go Grey (Siltbreeze LP)
Kate Nash: My Best Friend Is You (Fiction CD)
Dead Weather: Sea of Cowards (Warner Brothers LP)
Massive Attack: Heligo Land (Virgin 2-LP)
The Roots: How I Got Over (Def Jam CD)
Z’s: New Slaves (Social Registry 2-LP)
The Thermals: More Parts Per Million (Subpop CD)
Various: Stroke, Songs For Chris Knox (Merge CD)
Lower Dens: Twin Hand Move Ment (Gnomsonsong LP)
Caribou: Swim (Merge LP)
Weekend: Sports (Slumberland 2-LP)
Barn Owl: Ancestral Star (Thrill Jockey CD)
Martin Rev: Stigmata (Blastfirstpetite CD)
Johnny Cash: American VI: Ain’t No Grave (American Recordings CD)
Thee Oh Sees: Warm Slime (In the Red LP)
The Dead C: Patience (Ba Da Bing LP)
Liars: Sisterworld (Mute 2-LP)
Evan Caminiti: West Winds (Three Lobed LP)
Wild Nothing: Gemini (Captured Red LP)
Hole: Nobody’s Daughter (Mercury CD)
Trash Kit: Trash Kit!! (Upset the Rhythm LP)
Tape & Bill Wells: Fugue (Immune LP)
Grinderman: 2 (Anti LP)
Goldfrapp: Head First (Mute LP)
Indian Jewelry: Totaled (We Are Free LP)
Bryan Ferry: Olympia (Virgin CD)
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: I Speak Fula (Sub Pop CD)
Wetdog: “Frauhaus!” (Captured Red LP)
Joanna Newsom: Have One On Me (Drag City 3-CD)
She & Him: Volume Two (Merge CD)
Laetitia Sadier: The Trip (Drag City LP)
Gonjasufi: A Sufi & A Killer (Warp CD)
Naked on the Vague: Heaps of Nothing (Siltbreeze LP)
Mathis Hunter: Soft Opening (Shakedown LP)
Brian Jonestown Massacre: Who Killed Sgt. Peppers (a LP)
Vaselines: Sex With An X (Sub Pop CD)
Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3: Propellor Time (Satorial LP)
Stereolab: Not Music (Drag City/Duophonic Ultra High 2-LP)
Pit Er Pat: The Flexible Entertainer (Thrill Jockey LP)
Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh (CD)
Nice Face: Immer Etwas (Sacred Bones LP)
Psychic Ills: Astral Occurrence (Spring Press LP)
Psychic Ills: Catoptric (Social Registry LP)
Tandoori Knights: Curry Up It’s the Tandoori Knights (Norton LP)
Sleigh Bells: Treats (Mom & Pop CD)
Noot d’Noot: From Every Since (Shakedown LP)
A Frames/Climax Golden Twins: AFCGT LP + 7” (Sub Pop LP/7”)
Trans Am: Thing (Slumberland CD)
Various: Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa (Honest Jons 2-LP)
Effi Briest: Rhizomes (Sacred Bones LP)
Titus Andronicus: Monitor (XL CD)
Woven Bones: In and Out and Back Again (Hozac CD)

REISSUES/Compilations/Live/Oldies

The Velvet Underground: The Quine Tapes (Sundazed 6-LP)
Orange Juice: Coals to Newcastle (Domino 5 CD plus DVD)
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series No. 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962 – 1964 (Columbia 2-CD)
The Rolling Stones: Exile On Main Street (with Bonus disc) (2 CD)
Kleenex/Liliput: Live Recordings, TV-Clips & Roadmovie (Kill Rock Stars CD+DVD)
Various Artists: Worried Now, Won’t Be Worried Long: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
Various Artists: I’ll Be So Glad When the Sun Goes Down: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
Various Artists: Wave The Ocean, Wave the Sea: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
Various Artists: I’ll Meet You on That Other Side: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
Various Artists: I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die: Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s ‘Southern Journey’, 1959 – 1960 (Mississippi LP)
Fucked Up: Couple Tracks (Matador 2-LP)
X: Aspirations (Rocknroll Blitzkrieg LP)
Various: Fanajana: A Collection of Recordings and Photograhy from Madagasikara (Mississippi LP)
Kebab: We Live in a System (Softspot LP)
Interference: Interference (The Social Registry 2-LP)
Black Tambourine: Black Tambourine (Slumberland LP)
Kevin Dunn: No Great Lost, Songs, 1979 – 1985 (Casa Nueva CD)
Z’ev: as/if/when (Sub Rosa LP)
Various Artists: Deutsche Elektronische Musik: Volume Two: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Musik 1972-83 (Soul Jazz 2-LP)
Various Artists: Deutsche Elektronische Musik: Volume One: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Musik 1972-83 (Soul Jazz 2-LP)
The Scrotum Poles: Auchmithie Forever (Dulc-I-Tone LP)
Mike Rep and the Quotas: Stupor Hiatus (Silt Breeze 2 LP)
Sweet Talks: The Kusum Beat (Sound Way LP)
Hedzoleh: Hedzoleh (Sound Way LP)
White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights (Third Man 2-LP)
Ozzie: The Parabolic Rock 1975 – 1982 (S.S. 2-LP)
Various Artists: Brazillian Guitar Fuzz Bananas (Tropicalia in Furs 2-LP)

2010-11-04T03:02:00.000-07:00

Flood + snowballs = avalanche. And so it continues. 1979 has 28 LPs of a quality I would consider to be #1 in some ordinary year. Thousands of records -- worthy but lesser quality -- follow in the wake of these 60 gems. This was the “indie rock revolution.” It began here and continued onward, into the current decade and century. 1979 was a very good year for music by any objective standard. At risk of encouraging the tossing of genre names, 1979 was the beginning of the “post-punk” era (1979 – 1982). These 4 years are 2^nd only to the proudly nameless 1968 -1972 period as great rock moment

1979

The Fall: Live At the Witch Trials (Step Forward)
Pere Ubu: New Picnic Time (Chrysalis)
Public Image Ltd: Second Edition (aka Metal Box) (Virgin)
Swell Maps: Trip to Marineville (Rough Trade)
James Blood Ulmer: Tales of Captain Black (Artists House)
Red Crayola: Soldier Talk (Radar)
This Heat: This Heat (Piano, UK)
Wire: 154 (Harvest)
Air: Air Lore (Arista Novus)
The Clash: London Calling (CBS)
The Fall: Dragnet (Step Forward)
Magazine: Secondhand Daylight (Virgin)
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (Factory)
Caberet Voltaire: Mix Up (Rough Trade)
The Gang of Four: Entertainment (EMI)
The Slits: Cut (Antilles)
Throbbing Gristle: 20 Jazz Funk Greats (Industrial)
XTC: Drums & Wires (Virgin)
Elvis Costello: Armed Forces (CBS)
The Jam: Setting Sons (Polydor)
Buzzcocks: Singles Going Steady (A&M)
Soft Boys: A Can of Bees (Aural)
Linton Kwesi Johnson: Forces of Victory (Island)
Graham Parker: Squeezing Out the Sparks (Arista)
The Talking Heads: Fear of Music (Sire)
The Mekons: Quality of Mercy (Virgin, UK)
Cecil Taylor: 3 Phasis (New World)
Various: Tooth & Nail (Upsetter)
Lou Reed: Bells (RCA)
LaDonna Smith, Davey Williams & Andre Centazzo: Velocities (Trans Museq)
Tom Verlaine: Tom Verlaine (Elektra)
Leonard Cohen: Recent Songs (CBS)
Marianne Faithful: Broken English (Island)
Michael Jackson: Off the Wall (Epic)
Only Ones: Even Serpents Shine (CBS, UK)
The Pretenders: The Pretenders (Warner Brothers)
Angelic Upstarts: Teenage Warning (Warner Brothers, UK)
Patti Smith: Wave (Arista)
Arthur Blythe: Lenox Avenue Breakdown (CBS)
John Fahey: Visits Washington DC (Takoma)
Lizzy Mercier Descloux: Press Color (Ze)
Ian Hunter: You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic (Chrysalis)
Crass: Stations of the Crass (Crass)
The Residents: Eskimo (Ralph)
Ornette Coleman & Charlie Haden: Soapsuds, Soapsuds (Artists House)
Anne Lebaron, Davey Williams, & LaDonna Smith: Jewels (Trans Museq)
Nurse With Wound: Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine (Dirter)
Alternative TV: Vibing the Senile Man (Deptford)
Fred Frith & Henry Kaiser: With Friends Like These (Metalanguage)
Germs: GI (Slash)
ACDC: Highway to Hell (Atlantic)
Neil Young: Rust Never Sleeps (Reprise)
The Ramones: Its Alive (Sire)
The Undertones: The Undertones (Sire)
Adam & the Ants: Dirk Wears White Socks (Do It, UK)
Richard Lloyd: Alchemy (Elektra)
David Bowie: Lodger (RCA)
Peter Tosh: Mystic Man (Rolling Stones)
Bob Dylan: Slow Train Coming (CBS)
Robert Fripp: Exposure (EG)

2010-10-30T01:36:00.000-07:00

Teal Triggs: Fanzines: The DIY Revolution (Chronicle Books) This is a beautiful, folio-sized, 256-page history of zines, that is long over-due and as close to perfect as anything I have seen. It has page after page of full color cover reproductions with accompanying brief descriptive words. It is magical to witness all my old pals enshrined in what amounts to an art-book: Rollerderby, Nancy's Magazine, Murder Can Be Fun, Answer Me!, Vague, Sniffin' Glue, and many other deserving and not-so deserving zines from "back in the day". One sad omission I cannot stop myself from whining about is my own valiant effort, LowLife. Perhaps, I imagined those 17 issues: mailed out to addresses all over the country. Or perhaps not. 20 plus years ago the Rev. Ivan Stang published a very nice run-down of then current zine-world called High Weirdness By Mail (Simon & Schuster, 1988). Stang found a place for LowLife despite the fact my magazine was in adolescent form. His description remains a source of pride: "A generally disgusting celebration of everything uncouth... ...No reason for this to exist. Pretty damn cool!" Thanks Ivan. You remain in my prayers. While on the subject I should also complain about two other fine Atlanta zines not included: Useless Knowledge and Ratlanta. In fact there are thousands of worthy zines omitted from this hefty book. There is no way to include everything, but my pitiful feelings remain hurt. For the rest of the world, for anyone who is sane, this book will look fine sitting upon the better coffee-tables.

2010-04-25T01:46:00.000-07:00

I have taken many weeks to gather my memories of 1978 music. There was a lot to consider, more than 1977 or '76 or any of the years I have thus far considered going back to '65. '78 was the year the gates opened wide and the punk/new wave/post punk flood began in earnest. That flood would never subside. In fact "flood" does not do justice to the changes that began in '78 and continue to this very year, this very day. "Snowball" would be a better analogy, but I am getting far ahead of myself. After '77, it seemed unlikely another year would follow to rival the great sounds of Richard Hell, Peter Tosh, Ornette Coleman and the rest of that year of great records. Yet here it was, the very next year and again there were 20 -- perhaps 30 -- records of #1 quality. So much good music, 32 years later, I am still trying to catch up with the music 1978 had to give. The meaning of such terms as "punk" and "new wave" quickly began to blur, losing whatever meaning they ever had. "Post punk" hardly solves the happy problem. Good music never needed a pigeonhole to fill. Pere Ubu, Television, Magazine, Public Image Ltd., Wire and many others were playing music not easy to shove into any labeled boxes. These new sounds resonate decades later, as fresh and difficult to simplify as the day they were released.

Best LPs of 1978

1. Captain Beefheart: Shiny Beast/Bat Chain Puller (Warner Brothers)
2. Pere Ubu: Dub Housing (Chrysalis)
3. Air: Open Air Suite (Arista Novus)
4. Sun Ra: Lanquidity (Philly Jazz)
5. The Contortions/Teenage Jesus & the Jerks/Mars/D.N.A.: No New York (Antilles)
6. Big Star: Third (PVC)
7. Pere Ubu: The Modern Dance (Blank)
8. Wire: Chairs Missing (Harvest)
9. Television: Adventure (Elektra)
10. Magazine: Real Life (Virgin)
11. Public Image Ltd.: Public Image (Virgin)
12. Lou Reed: Street Hassle (RCA)
13. X-Ray Spex: Germ Free Adolescents (EMI)
14. Crass: Feeding the 5000 (Crass)
15. Lee Scratch Perry: Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Corn Bread (Upsetter LP)
16. The Clash: Give Em Enough Rope (CBS)
17. Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Scream (Polydor)
18. Patti Smith: Easter (Arista)
19. The Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings & Food (Sire)
20. Elvis Costello: This Year's Model (CBS)
21. Ry Cooder: Jazz (Reprise)
22. David Behrman: On the Other Ocean/Figures in a Clearing (Lovely)
23. La Dusseldorf: Viva (Radar, UK)
24. Funkadelic: One Nation Under A Groove (Warner Brothers)
25. Devo: Are We Not Men, We Are Devo (Warner Brothers)
26. Radio Birdman: Radios Appear (Sire)
27. Ornette Coleman: Body Meta (Artists House, France)
28. Residents: Duck Stab/Buster & Glen (Ralph)
29. Culture: Two Sevens Clash (Lightning, UK)
30. The Saints: Eternally Yours (Harvest)
31. Throbbing Gristle: DOA/3rd & Final Report (Industrial)
32. Sam Rivers: Waves (Tomato)
33. Air: Montreaux Suisse (Arista Novus)
34. Willie Nelson: Stardust (CBS)
35. The Jam: All Mod Cons (Polydor)
36. Various: Pebbles, Volume 1 -- Original Artyfacts From The First Punk Era (Mastercharge, AUS)
37. Peter Tosh: Bush Doctor (Rolling Stones)
38. Cecil Taylor: The Cecil Taylor Unit (New World)
39. LaDonna Smith, Davey Williams & Ted Brown: Folk Music (Trans Museq)
40. XTC: White Music (Virgin)
41. Al Green: Truth 'n' Time (Hi)
42. Tom Waits: Blue Valentine (Asylum)
43. Bob Marley & the Wailers: Kaya (Island)
44. XTC: Go 2 (Virgin)
45. AMM: To Hear & Back Again (Matchless)
46. Brian Eno: Music For Films (EG)
47. Henry Cow: Western Culture (Recommended, UK)
48. The Ramones: Road to Ruin (Sire)
49. Adverts: Crossing the Red Sea (Bright, UK)
50. Alternative TV: The Image Has Cracked (Deptford, UK)
51. Holy Modal Rounders: Last Round (Adelphi)
52. Parliament: Motor Booty Afair (Casablanca)
53. The Rezillos: Can't Stand the Rezillos (Sire)
54. Johnny Thunder: So Alone (Real, UK)
55. Bootsy Collins: Player of the Year (Warner Brothers)
56. Kraftwerk: The Man-Machine (Capital)
57. The Only Ones: The Only Ones (CBS, UK)
58. Townes Van Zandt: Flying Shoes (Tomato)
59. John Prine: Bruised Orange (Asylum)
60. Flamin' Groovies: Now (Sire)
61. Alternative TV: What You See (Deptford)
62. Joe Ely: Honky Tonk Masquerade (MCA)

2010-02-11T23:34:00.000-08:00

What a year was 1977. My top 20 or so choices could easily be #1 choices in a lesser year. Standing alone, the year would be remarkable enough. Followed by four years of equal, if not greater richness, 1977 was the beginning of the true golden era of pop. Yet, many of these records were hardly pop, certainly not popular at the time of their release. Obviously, I use "pop" to describe a genre, not objectively popular records. 1977 was the year pop was redefined and re-imagined and re-made into punk. There is a clear break between what came before and what came after this seminal year. Despite the fact, my top choices are: a jazz record, a soul record and a reggae record, 1977 was year one of punk rock. This list includes 12 of the greatest punk rock records of all time by: Wire, the Voidoids, the Clash, the Saints, the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Buzzcocks, the Damned, the Real Kids, the Vibrators and the Heartbreakers. Then there are great records by punk first cousins: the Talking Heads, MX80 Sound, Elvis Costello, Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, and the Jam. And three great records that divide both camps by the man who invented the whole thing: Iggy Pop. All these musicians and many more came together without a plan, without a cause, without direction, without knowing they were together, came together to form a new wave of music. This "new wave" simply could not have been three years earlier. For better or worse pop music was never the same again.

Best LPs of 1977

1. Ornette Coleman: Dancing In Your Head (Horizon)
2. Al Green: The Belle Album (Hi)
3. Peter Tosh: Equal Rights (CBS)
4. Wire: Pink Flag (Harvest)
5. Richard Hell & the Voidoids: Blank Generation (Sire)
6. Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks (Warner Brothers)
7. The Clash: The Clash (CBS, UK)
8. The Ramones: Leave Home (Sire)
9. Television: Marquee Moon (Elektra)
10. Talking Heads: 77 (Sire)
11. David Bowie: Low (RCA)
12. Junior Murvin: Police & Thieves (Island)
13. Elvis Costello: My Aim Is True (CBS)
14. The Saints: I'm Stranded (Harvest)
15. MX80 Sound: Hard Attack (Island)
16. Brian Eno: Before & After Science (Island)
17. The Ramones: Rocket to Russia (Sire)
18. Iggy Pop: The Idiot (RCA)
19. Suicide: Suicide (Red Star)
20. Bob Marley & the Wailers: Exodus (Island)
21. Lynyrd Skynyrd: Street Survivors *MCA)
22. David Bowie: Heroes (RCA)
23. The Jam: In the City (Polydor)
24. The Real Kids: The Real Kids (Red Star)
25. The Vibrators: Pure Mania (Epic)
26. Throbbing Gristle: 2nd Annual Report (Industrial)
27. Philip Glass: North Star (Virgin)
28. Kraftwerk: Trans-Europe Express (Capitol)
29. Leonard Cohen: Death of a Ladies Man (CBS)
30. LaDonna Smith, Davey Williams, Jim Hearon, & Timothy Reed: Trans (Trans Museq)
31. Iggy Pop & James Williamson: Kill City (Bomp)
32. The Buzzcocks: Another Music In a Different Kitchen (United Artists, UK)
33. Iggy Pop: Lust For Life (RCA)
34. The Damned: Damned Damned Damned (Stiff)
35. The Jam: This is the Modern World (Polydor)
36. Michael Hurley: Long Journey (Rounder)
37. Third World: 96 Degrees In the Shade (Island)
38. Bootsy Collins: Ah... the Name is Bootsy Baby (Warner Brothers)
39. Peter Hammill: Over (Charisma)
40. Blondie: Plastic Letters (Chrysalis)
41. Hawkwind: Quark Strangeness and Charm (Sire)
42. Parliament: Funkenstein Vs. the Placebo Syndrome (Casablanca)
43. Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers: LAMF (Track, UK)
44. The Brothers Johnson: Right On Time (A&M)
45. Townes Van Vandt: Live in the Old Quarter (Fat Possum)
46. Van Der Graaf Generator: The Quiet Zone (Charisma)
47. Tom Waits: Foreign Affairs (Elektra)
48. Garland Jeffreys: Ghost Writer (A&M)
49. Van Morrison: A Period of Transition (Warner Brothers)
50. Elliott Murphy: Just a Story from America (CBS)
51. The Boys: The Boys (Nems, UK)
52. Motorhead: Motorhead (Chiswick)
53. The Dictators: Manifest Destiny (Asylum)
54. Neu: '75 (United Artists, UK)
55. Pink Floyd: Animals (Capitol)
56. Blue Oyster Cult: Spectres (CBS)
57. Cheap Trick: Cheap Trick (Epic)

2010-01-31T01:33:00.000-08:00

BIRD OF THE DAY

From The Birds by Camille Paglia (BFI Film Classics series) During production of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, "An inspector from the American Humane Association was always present... ...to ensure that the birds were well-treated. After shooting had finished, most were released back to the wild, with the Arizona birds returned to their habitat. However, fifty crows refused to leave the studio lot and perched near Hitchcock's bungalow; they soiled his car until the tree they were roosting in was cut down."

2010-01-16T01:17:00.000-08:00

After messing around for a month on the now, it is time to return to the then and my long history of pop & jazz with lists. Rereading some of my autobiographical introductory sketches, it occurs to me they suggest my lists are the records I was actually listening to in a given year. In many cases nothing could be further from truth. In 1972 the record most often on my turntable was Machine Head. Despite the fact I still love that Deep Purple classic, it did not make my 1972 list. I was already listening to many of the records that did make my seventies lists as a teenager, but I did not discover some of the best records of that period until years later. To this day I continue to uncover and rediscover records from every decade and all periods of music. I remain weak on some eras. 1995 through 2005 is a ten year stretch I still need much work upon. On the other hand, the music of the seventies might be described as my specialty, but I still have much to learn about that remarkable era, as well. 38 years late, I recently heard for the first time the debut record by Matching Mole. If I were to re-post my '72 list, I would include that one: Little Red Record. Perhaps, I would also find room for Machine Head. As for 1976, it was a year of change. The genre most folks would call "seventies rock" was pretty much at its end. Something else was rising: punk and reggae and other nameless sounds. I turned 17 years old that summer. I was listening to the Ramones and Blondie and the Dictators. I certainly was not listening to Stockhausen. I would not discover his music until the 1980s when I was working at WREK, hosting a radio program called Destroy All Music. I was digging through the stacks constituting the amazing collection then housed at the station, looking for new noises for my no wave show, when I stumbled upon a record by Karlheinz Stockhausen amongst the classical records. The fact is Sternklang does not belong on a list of pop & jazz favorites. But I love the record as much as any punk rock record.

Best LPs of 1976

1. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Sternklang (Polydor)
2. The Modern Lovers: The Modern Lovers (Berserkly)
3. The Ramones: The Ramones (Sire)
4. Patti Smith: Radio Ethiopia (Arista)
5. Bill Dixon & Franz Koglmann: Opium/For Franz (Pipe)
6. Cecil Taylor: Dark to Themselves (Enja)
7. U Roy: Dread in a Babylon (Virgin)
8. Blondie: Blondie (Chrysalis)
9. Miles Davis: Agharta (CBS)
10. Burning Spear: Marcus Garvey (Island)
11. Cecil Taylor: Air Above Mountains (Inner City)
12. Iggy & the Stooges: Metallic K.O. (CBS)
13. Rahsaan Roland Kirk: The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man (Warner Brothers)
14. David Bowie: Station to Station (RCA)
15. Tom Waits: Small Change (Asylum)
16. Parliament: The Mothership Connection (Casablanca)
17. Bob Marley & the Wailers: Rastaman Vibration (Island)
18. La Dosseldorf: La Dosseldorf (Decca, UK)
19. Big Youth: Natty Cultural Dread (Trojan)
20. Peter Tosh: Legalize It (CBS)
21. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel: Timeless Flight (EMI)
22. Al Green: Full of Fire (Hi)
23. Max Romeo & the Upsetters: War Ina Babylon (Mango)
24. The Brothers Johnson: Look Out for #1 (A&M)
25. Burning Spear: Garvey's Ghost (Island)
26. Nelson Slater: Wild Angel (RCA)
27. Van der Graaf Generator: Still Life (Mercury)
28. Al Green: Have a Good Time (Hi)
29. Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life (Motown)
30. Blue Oyster Cult: Agents of Fortune (CBS)
31. Bootsy Collins: Stretchin' Out in Bootsy's Rubber Band (Warner Brothers)
32. Graham Parker: Howlin' Wind (Mercury)
33. Van der Graaf Generator: World Record (Mercury)
34. Michael Hurley/The Unholy Modal Rounders: Have Moicy (Rounder)
35. Terry Reid: Seed of Memory (ABC)
36. ACDC: High Voltage (Epic)
37. Mighty Diamonds: Right Time (Virgin)
38. Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Other Folks Music (Atlantic)
39. Graham Parker: Heat Treatment (Mercury)

2010-01-13T23:54:00.000-08:00

A horrid, unnamable decade has come to an end. A unique opportunity for all the makers of lists arises with its finish. For reasons that are not clear to me, I have not been quick to seize this moment. I cannot explain why the end of ten years seems more arbitrary than my beloved years' end. Yet I do not seem able to move forward without at least acknowledging this supposed milepost along time's highway. I have picked 45 CDs/LPs of the decade, listed in order of preference. I am only allowing one selection per artist to prevent favorite artists (for example the White Stripes) taking all the top positions. I have at least once cheated my system allowing Nick Cave to slip in twice under his own name and his "side project" Grinderman.

Favorite LPs & CDs of a Decade:

1. White Stripes: De Stijl (XL, 2000)
2. Cat Power: The Covers Album (Matador, 2000)
3. Tom Waits: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (Anti, 2006)
4. Joe Strummer & the Mascaleros: Global A Go Go (Epitaph, 2001)
5. John Fahey: Red Cross (Revenant, 2003)
6. Portishead: Third (Island, 2008)
7. Yo Le Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Inside Out (Matador, 2000)
8. Bill Dixon: Bill Dixon with the Exploding Star Orchestra (Thrill Jockey, 2008)
9. Grinderman: Grinderman (Anti, 2007)
10. Tricky: BlowBack (Hollywood, 2001)
11. The Ex: Dizzy Spells (Touch & Go, 2001)
12. The Kills: Midnight Bloom (Domino, 2008)
13. Patti Smith: Gung Ho (Arista, 2000)
14. Liars: They Threw Us In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top (Mute, 2001)
15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Show Your Bones (Polydor, 2006)
16. Brian Jonestown Massacre: My Bloody Underground (a Records, 2008)
17. Mercury Rev: All Is Dream, (V2, 2001)
18. Bjork: Medulla (Polydor, 2004)
19. Robert Wyatt: Cuckooland (Hannibal, 2003)
20. Von Bondies: Lack of Communication (Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2001)
21. OOIOO: Taiga (Thrill Jockey, 2006)
22. Massive Attack: 100th Window (Virgin, 2003)
23. The Roots: The Tipping Point (Geffen, 2004)
24. Magik Marker: Boss (Ecstatic Peace, 2007)
25. Erykah Badu: New Amerykah Part One (Universal Distribution, 2008)
26. Goldfrapp: Felt Mountain (Mute, 2000)
27. Roots Manuva: Stime & Reason (Big Dada, 2008)
28. These Are Powers: Terrific Season (Dead Oceans, 2007)
29. Throbbing Gristles: Part Two: The Endless Not (Mute, 2007)
30. Enon: High Society (Touch & Go, 2002)
31. Radiohead: Kid A (Capitol, 2000)
32. The Bird & the Bee: The Bird & the Bee (Blue Note, 2004)
33. The Warlocks: Heavy Deavy Skull Lover (Teepee, 2007)
34. The Dandy Warhols: Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (Capitol, 2000)
35. Telescopes: # Untitled Second (Bomp, 2004)
36. Nick Cave: Dig Lazarus Dig (Anti, 2008)
37. Sonic Youth: Murray Street (Interscope, 2002)
38. The Bug: London Zoo (Ninja Tunes, 2008)
39. Absolut Null Punkt: Metacompound (Important, 2006)
40. Kurt Vile: Childish Prodigy (Matador, 2009)
41. Grizzly Bear: Horn of Plenty (Kanine, 2005)
42. Blues Control: Local Flavor (Silkbreeze, 2009)
43. Q Is Not U: Different Damage (Dischord, 2002)
44. Godspeed You Black Emperor: Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (Kranky, 2000)
45. De Kift: De Kift (North East Indie, 2006)

2009-12-20T00:17:00.000-08:00

To be so presumptuous to post a list of "the best" books of a year, when that year is still 12 days short of completion, is to be a fool. But here I am about to do just that, admitting I have read cover to cover a mere 74 books published in 2009. Yet, working at a bookstore, reading many publisher lists and handling untold numbers: reading the first 50 or so pages of gods know how many books, I am in a better position than most folks to know what is out there and to begin separating recyclables from trash destined for the landfills. Ten or twenty years from today, a 2009 "best" books list will doubtless look quite different, but today these are the books I am obsessing over, these are the twenty-five or six books I most love, listed below, as always in order of preference. Let me pause for these words from my sponsor: if you are having trouble finding these titles and happen to be in Atlanta, we have most of my favorites at A Cappella Books. If we don't have them and they are still in print, we can place a special order and have them in a few days.

Favorite Books 2009

1. Colm Toibin: Brooklyn (Scribner)
2. Padgett Powell: The Interrogative Mood (Ecco)
3. Vladimir Nabokov: The Original of Laura (Knopf)
4. Colum McCann: Let the Great World Spin (Random House)
5. Paul Auster: Invisible (Henry Holt)
6. Dave Eggers: Zeitoun (McSweeney's)
7. Elijah Wald: How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll (Oxford)
8. Abdourahman Waberi: In the United States of Africa (Nebraska)
9. Hans Fallada: Every Man Dies Alone (Melville House)
10. Hans Fallada: The Drinker (Melville House)
11. Nicholson Baker: The Anthologist (Simon & Schuster)
12. Francine Prose: Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife (Harper)
13. Peter Richardson: A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of "Ramparts Magazine" Changed America (New Press)
14. Max Blumenthal: Republican Gamorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party (Nation)
15. Nick Hornby: Juliet, Naked (Riverhead)
16. Paul Gorman: Reasons to be Cheerful, The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles (Adelita Ltd.)
17. Andrew Perchuk & Rani Singh: Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular (Getty Research Institute)
18. Jeffrey Haas: The Assassination of Fred Hampton (Lawrence Hill)
19. Kevin Wilson: Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Harper Perennial)
20. Nicholas Rombes: A Cultural Dictionary of Punk 1974 - 1982 (Continuum)
21. C.L.R. James: You Don't Play with Revolution (AK Press)
22. Nami Mun: Miles from Nowhere (Riverhead)
23. Majorie Cohn & Kathleen Gilberd: Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent (PoliPoint)
24. Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Nation)
25. Steve Waksman: This Ain't the Summer of Love (California)

SPECIAL MENTION: BEST REISSUE:

Middleton A. Harris: The Black Book: 35th Anniversary Edition (Random House)

2009-12-18T17:46:00.000-08:00

It is about time I step back into to the present and the year presently coming to a close. I don't know how history will perceive the music of 2009, but I certainly found a bunch of good records this year.

2009 top-forty

1. Magik Markers: Balf Quarry (Drag City CD)
2. Kurt Vile: Childish Prodigy (Matador CD)
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Its Blitz! (Interscope LP)
4. The Ravonettes: In & Out of Control (Vice LP)
5. Blues Control: Local Flavor (Siltbreeze LP)
6. A Place to Bury Strangers: Exploding Head (Mute CD)
7. The Warlocks: The Mirror Explodes (Tee Pee LP)
8. Grizzly Bear: Vecatimest (Warp 2-LP)
9. Fuck Buttons: Tarot Sport (Apt CD)
10. The O Voids: The O Voids (Troubleman Unlimited LP)
11. King Khan & the Shrines: What Is? (Vice CD)
12. Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions (Southern Lord 2-LP)
13. Steve Earle: Townes (New West CD)
14. Ramblin' Jack Eliott: A Stranger Here (Anti CD)
15. Finally Punk: Casual Goths (Army of Bad Luck LP)
16. Nothing People: Late Night (SS LP)
17. Dead Weather: Horehound (Third Man 2-LP)
18. The Horrors: Primary Colours (XL 2-LP)
19. Untied States: Instant Everything Constant Nothing (Untied States LP)
20. The Clean: Mister Pop (Merge CD)
21. Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs (Matador 2-LP)
22. Fever Ray: Fever Ray (Mute CD)
23. Children's Hospital: Alone Together (Sacred Bones LP)
24. Broadcast and the Focus Group: Investigate Witchcults and the Radio Age (Warp LP)
25. Alan Licht: YMCA (Family Vineyard LP)
26. Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions: Through the Devil Softly (Nettwerk CD)
27. These Are Powers: All Aboard Future (Dead Oceans LP)
28. Loren Connors: The Curse of Midnight Mary (Family Vineyards LP)
29. Pens: Hey Friend What You Doing (De Stijl LP)
30. Sic Alps/Magik Marker: Magik Marker/Sic Alps (Yik Yak Split 12" 45-rpm EP)
31. Black Dice: Repo (Paw CD)
32. Low Red Center: Low Red Center (SS 10" EP)
33. King Khan & BBQ Show: Invisible Girl (In the Red LP)
34. Greg Connors: Full Moon Flashlight (Scared CD)
35. Various Artist: Skulls Without Borders (Siltbreeze 10" EP)
36. Black Lips: 200 Million Thousand (Vice)
37. Tijuana Hercules: The Almanack of Bad Luck (Black Pisces LP)
38. Bobby Ubangi: Inside the Mind of Bobby Ubangi (Rob's House LP)
39. Brian Jonestown Massacre: Smoking Acid (2-12" EP)
40. Bardo Pond: Peri (Three Lobed LP)

2009 Top-20 Reissues

1. The Beatles: Mono (CD box-set)
2. The Rolling Stones: Get Yer Ya Yas Out (CD box-set)
3. Nirvana: Bleach (Sub Pop 2-LP)
4. The Rondos: Destroy the Entertainment (Red Wig 2-LP)
5. Mirrors: Something That Would Never Do (Violet Times/Hovercraft LP)
6. De Kift: Yverzucht (Mississippi LP)
7. Swell Maps: International Rescue (Alive LP)
8. Young Marble Giants: Live At the Hurrah (Get Back LP)
9. Lizzy Mercier Desloux: Press Color (Ze Records LP)
10. Tlahoun Gessesse: Tlahoun Gessesse -- 1940 - 2009 -- Ethiopian Urban Modern Music Volume 4 (Ethiopiques Collection LP)
11. Death: For the Whole World to See (Drag City LP)
12. Dock Boggs: False Hearted Lover's Blues (Monk LP)
13. MC5: Shakin' Street (Lilith 2-LP/CD)
14. 39 Clocks: Zoned -- recordings 1987 - 1980... rewind (De STijl CD)
15. Black Randy and the Metrosquad: Pass the Dust, I think I'm Bowie (Vinyl Countdown 2-LP)
16. Various: Dub Echoes (Soul Jazz 3-LP)
17. Henry Flynt: Raga Electric-Experimental Music, 1963-1971 (Locust LP)
18. The Cultural Decay: Eight Ways to Start a Day (Sacred Bones LP)
19. 13 Chimes: The Singles 1981-1983 (Sacred Bones LP)
20. The Units: History of the Units; the Early Years, 1977-1983 (Community Library CD)

2009-12-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

I first heard Patti Smith's masterpiece and debut Horses played on 96 Rock, WKLS, Atlanta in December 1975. The station was standard "album oriented" format: Zeppelin, the Stones, Cream, Free, the Faces, and other less memorable, torpid sounds of that era. It really wasn't so different from the perpetual-adolescent male fantasy format of its current incarnation: Project 9-6-1. Nothing could have been further out of place than Patti's groundbreaking neo-feminist punk poetry avant-garde rock 'n' roll. Yet someone had the good sense to program her new record on their weekly show featuring new releases in their entirety, and it changed everything for one young listener. I was slowly breaking with the mainstream of rock music as long as I had been listening to the stuff, basically since I was old enough to crawl toward sound coming from a hi-fi speaker. I finally broke free to the sound of "Break it Up" that cold night. I wish I could recall the name of the show which against all odds featured this remarkable punk rock record, before many people used the term "punk rock." I had read Patti's music writing and read about her musical efforts in Creem magazine -- one place where punk rock was already being described. But hearing her music on the radio that night was a unique experience. Within two years I had abandoned most of my favorites for a new crop of punk bands related to Patti Smith: the Ramones, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Television, Pere Ubu, Wire, the Sex Pistols, the Clash and many others setting the pace for all my musical choices to come. Horses was where my new wave began. Unlike "punk rock", "new wave" is a term that always sounded rather silly and has long been out of vogue. Yet there is something appropriate about how it suggests a torrent of change, something very like a wave of sound that began for this listener on a December night long ago.

Best LPs of 1975

1. Patti Smith: Horses (Arista)
2. Bob Dylan: The Basement Tapes (CBS)
3. Brian Eno: Another Green World (Island)
4. Neil Young: Tonight's the Night (Reprise)
5. The Dictators: Go Girl Crazy (Epic)
6. Lynyrd Skynyrd: Nothing Fancy (MCA)
7. Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti (Swan Song)
8. Lee Scratch Perry: Revolution Dub (Creole)
9. John Cale: Helen of Troy (Island)
10. Robert Wyatt: Ruth is Stranger than Richard (Virgin)
11. The Rolling Stones: Metamorphosis (ABC)
12. John Cale: Slow Dazzle (Island)
13. Tom Waits: Nighthawks at the Diner (Asylum)
14. Roxy Music: Siren (Atco)
15. Ian Hunter: Ian Hunter (CBS)
16. Steve Lacy: Concert Solo (Emanem, UK)
17. Van Der Graaft Generator: Godbluff (Charisma)
18. Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music (RCA)
19. Brian Eno: Discreet Music (Antilles)
20. The Revolutionary Ensemble: The People's Republic (A&M)
21. The Meters: Cissy Strut (Island)
22. Anthony Braxton: Recital 71 (Futura)
23. Steve Lacy: Flakes (RCA)
24. Steve Lacy: School Days (Emanem, UK)
25. Steve Lacy: Crust (Emanem, UK)
26. Steve Lacy: Sextet Scraps (Saravah, France)
27. Bob Marley & the Wailers: Natty Dread (Island)
28. Peter Hammil: Nadir's Last Chance (Charisma)
29. Cecil Taylor: In Transition (Blue Note)
30. David Bowie: Young Americans (RCA)
31. Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks (CBS)
32. Al Green: Is Love (Hi)
33. Etta James: Betta Than Evah (Chess)
34. Neil Young: Zuma (Reprise)
35. Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (CBS)
36. Hatfield and the North: The Rotters' Club (Virgin)
37. Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here (CBS)
38. The Sweet: Desolation Boulevard (Capitol)
39. Andy Fairweather Low: La Booga Rooga (A&M)
40. Van Dyke Parks: Clang of the Yankee Reaper (Warner Brothers)
41. Lou Reed: Live (RCA)
42. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel: The Best Years of Our Lives (EMI)
43. John Cale, Kevin Ayers, Nico & Eno: June 1, 1974 (Island)
44. Robert Fripp & Brian Eno: Evening Star (Antilles)
45. Leo Kottke: Chewing Pine (Capitol)

2009-11-20T00:51:00.000-08:00

Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy was not regarded as an instant classic when released. Like many of the best records it was mostly ignored. In my junior year at Headland High School in East Point, my art teacher allowed her students to bring records to class. We could play them on a dinky turntable in the back of the room, presumably to inspire youthful muses. I brought records of Mott the Hoople and Brian Eno, the latter to the horror of most of my classmates. Eno would not have been tolerated but for the support of a scary biker friend named Billy who approved my musical choices for some insane reason. Billy Lindsay returned to my life after graduation when I was re-introduced to him by soon-to-be convicted murderer, Chris Wood. Chris was the singer for Atlanta's infamous punk band, the Restraints. By that time it was 1979 and Billy was working for Wood's seminal band. Back in suburban wasteland high, Billy and I stood out from the crowd for different reasons. Billy stood out because he wore a leather jacket, had long hair and a beard, and drove a motorcycle to school. The fact he was three years older than anyone else did not help his efforts to blend. I was an ordinary skinny kid, but my bizarre tastes were legend already, and the cause for much derision from my peers. Around the same time Billy and I were making enemies and influencing no one with our art class musical selections, I published my first record review of another then mostly unknown musician: Bruce Springsteen. The record was Born to Run. The review was in our school's student paper. Shortly before my review appeared, the boss-to-be was in the matrix of a hyperbole storm. He appeared simultaneously on the cover of Newsweek and Time. But in the south, Springsteen remained little known despite the media attention. Doubtless the fact I was the one claiming his record was good, contributed to the certainty among my "readers" he must be crap. In the month's to follow I received a few punches in the arm, accompanied by clever remarks about my fag musical tastes. In the spring there was an April fools' issue of our paper with a parody of my writing style. The review was by Gwen Trasher. She reviewed the latest make-believe masterpiece of Conway Twitty. I have often wondered about the anonymous writer of that cute and nasty little piece. The chances are very good he/she grew into a Springsteen fan, like most of his/her generation. Perhaps she/he even likes Twitty. My own taste certainly matured a bit. As a teenager, I was a rather typical ignorant, reactionary/rebellious youth. I hated all things blatantly southern for the hell of it. I refused to read most of the masterpieces of southern fiction. I would have nothing to do with Harper Lee or Flannery O'Connor. I was closing on my forties before I got to To Kill a Mockingbird and Wise Blood. As for the brilliant rock of the Allman Brothers and Skynyrd, I could not stand that stuff when I was young. Most of the anger my Springsteen piece enflamed among my fellow students was over how I found the space to ridicule "such trash" as Lynyrd Skynrd within my astute analysis of Born to Run. The fact I managed to bring Skynyrd into the review indicated I had some kind of agenda. It also suggests my youthful writing style was not so different from later loquacity. At about the time I was getting over my grudge against the masterworks of 20th century American fiction, I finally admitted to myself the best of southern rock was balls busting good stuff following the Stones, the Yardbirds, C.C.R., Neil Young, Howlin' Wolf, Little Richard, and most good solid rock 'n' roll. As for 1974, much of the great music stood with Eno at the margins of standard "album oriented" music of the period, far from today's "classic rock." Rock Bottom, Grievous Angels, Fear, Too Much Too Soon, and Radio City are usually pigeon holed as "cult" records, great records with small, tight, passionate fan bases, records loved fervently by a few, and held at arm's length by most everyone else. Nevertheless, at a distance of 35 years it is unclear there is much difference between cult and classic. To a young listener, Before the Flood and Rock Bottom are equal, until they land on the turntable or ipod. The moment such sounds are first heard by a new generation listener is a moment of truth. It is the moment a golden oldie turns into fresh new music. It is a beautiful place to be. In that moment, I believe, 1974 is a good year for music.

Best LPs of 1974

1. Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy (Island)
2. Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom (Virgin)
3. The Velvet Underground: 1969 Velvet Underground Live (Mercury)
4. Bob Dylan & the Band: Before the Flood (Asylum)
5. David Bowie: Diamond Dogs (RCA)
6. Gram Parsons: Grievous Angels (Reprise)
7. John Cale: Fear (Island)
8. Kraftwerk: Autobahn (Mercury)
9. Roxy Music: Stranded (Atco)
10. New York Dolls: Too Much Too Soon (Mercury)
11. Big Star: Radio City (Ardent)
12. Cecil Taylor: Silent Tongues (Freedom)
13. Neil Young: On the Beach (Reprise)
14. Roxy Music: Country Life (Island, UK)
15. Derek Bailey & Anthony Braxton: First Duo Concert (Emanem)
16. Leonard Cohen: New Skin For Old Ceremony (CBS)
17. Frank Wright: Unity (ESP)
18. Joseph Jarmen & Anthony Braxton: Together Alone (Delmark)
19. Frank Koglmann & Steve Lacy: Flaps (Pipe)
20. Sun Ra: Cosmo-Earth Fantasy (Saturn))
21. Miles Davis: Get Up With It (CBS)
22. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel: Psychomodo (EMI)
23. Nico: The End (Island)
24. Richard & Linda Thompson: I Want to See the Bright Lights (Island)
25. Tom Waits: The Heart of Saturday Night (Asylum)
26. Curtis Mayfield: Curtis (Buddah)
27. Bob Marley & the Wailers: Rasta Revolution (Trojan)
28. Lou Reed: Rock 'n' Roll Animal (RCA)
29. Miles Davis: Big Fun (CBS)
30. Joni Mitchell: Court & Spark (Asylum)
31. Eric Clapton: 461 Ocean Boulevard (RSO)
32. Randy Newman: Good Old Boys (Reprise)
33. Slapp Happy/Henry Cow: Desperate Straights (Virgin)
34. Mott the Hoople: The Hoople (CBS)
35. King Crimson: Red (Atlantic)
36. Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties (CBS)
37. Al Green: Explores Your Mind (Hi)
38. Stevie Wonder: Fullfillingness First Finale (Motown)
39. The Kinks: Preservation Act 2 (RCA)
40. Various: Leo Kottke/Peter Lang/John Fahey (Takoma)
41. Captain Beefheart: Unconditionally Guaranteed (Mercury)
42. Bryan Ferry: These Foolish Things (Atlantic)
43. Andy Fairweather Low: Spider Jiving (A&M)
44. Henry Cow: Legend (Virgin, UK)
45. Steve Reich: Drumming/Six Pianos/Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (Deutsche Grammophon)
46. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel: The Human Managerie (EMI)
47. Gato Barbieri: Chapter Three: Viva Emiliano Zapata (Impulse)
48. Al Green: Living For You (Hi)
49. The Rolling Stones: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (Rolling Stones)

2009-11-06T00:21:00.000-08:00

In 1974 for my 15th birthday, my Mom drove me to Peaches Records and Tapes in Buckhead. Peaches was one of those wonderful, giant record emporiums of that era. We lived in East Point, on the south side of Atlanta and opposite the uptown Buckhead neighborhood. Finding good records on Atlanta's south side in the seventies was all but impossible. It is not easy 35 years later. As an apprentice record collector, all I wanted for my birthday was an opportunity to get to this legendary store, which might as well have been off world to a bicycle bound teenager. I still remember the thrill of walking into that room of records for the first time. To this day when I go to a good record store the pleasure I feel is but a simulation of that initial rush. The addict is always looking to repeat the experience of his/her first shot. For my first time I bought two records that would turn out to be enormously influential. One was a collection of experimental music on the Folkways label called Sounds of New Music (1959), including short selections by John Cage, Henry Cowell, Edgard Varese and an excerpt of Aleksandr Mosolov's "Symphony of Machines." The other record I bought was Brian Eno's first album, Here Come the Warm Jets. I had read about this extraordinary record in Creem magazine, which was my principle source for information on new and unusual music in my suburban cultural desert. Unusual was what I sought. I was that kind of kid. Anything that stretched the boundaries of music or lilterature or film appealed to my imagination. I might not understand it, but I wanted it. Here Come the Warm Jets was about as weird as pop music gets, then or now. In many ways it was the model for all the post punk and new wave experimental pop that emerged between 1977 and 1982 and beyond. Wire, the Talking Heads, Pere Ubu, Magazine, Orange Juice, the Tall Dwarves, the Pixies and dozens of other important bands owe much to Eno's early solo work. Likewise pop new wave hit makers such as ABC, Soft Cell and Japan would not have existed without the influence of the arty experimental pop of Brian Eno on this record and the arguably greater masterpiece to follow: Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy. Nearly four decades later this music still sounds foward reaching. As a teenager I studied the careful clutter of the cover photography for clues and listened to Here Come the Warm Jets until I wore my copy out. And I loved it. According to the discography on error-riddled Wikipedia: Here Come the Warm Jets was issued in January of 1974. According to the typo scattered classic: Terry Hounsome's Rock Record: Enlarged, Revised, Expanded: A Collectors' Directory of Rock Albums and Musicians (Blandford Press, 1987, 3rd edition), the same record was issued in 1973. My overburdened, unreliable brain remembers first reading about the record in 1973. Certainly Here Come the Warm Jets was issued in the UK prior to its U.S. appearance. So I am assuming it was available as an import through the Jem Records import catalogue toward the end of 1973.

Best LPs of 1973

1. Brian Eno: Here Comes the Warm Jets (Island, UK)
2. Iggy & the Stooges: Raw Power (CBS)
3. Lynyrd Skynyrd: Pronounced Leh-nerd Skeh-nerd (MCA)
4. Roxy Music: For Your Pleasure (Island, UK)
5. Mott the Hoople: Mott (CBS)
6. David Bowie: Aladdin Sane (RCA)
7. John Cale: Paris 1919 (Reprise)
8. Kraftwerk: Ralf & Florian (Vertigo, UK)
9. King Crimson: Larks Tongue In Aspect (Atlantic)
10. Miles Davis: On the Corner (CBS)
11. Al Green: Call Me (Hi)
12. Art Ensemble of Chicago: Bap-tizum (Atlantic)
13. Can: Future Days (United Artists)
14. John Prine: Sweet Revenge (Atlantic)
15. Blue Oyster Cult: Tyranny and Mutation (CBS)
16. New York Dolls: New York Dolls (Mercury)
17. Tom Waits: Closing Time (Asylum)
18. Led Zepplin: Houses of the Holy (Atlantic)
19. Faust: IV (Virgin)
20. Sly & the Family Stone: Fresh (Epic)
21. Art Ensemble of Chicago: Fanfare for the Warriors (Atlantic)
22. The Who: Quadrophnia (MCA)
23. Toots & the Maytals: Funky Kingston (Island)
24. Robert Fripp & Brian Eno: No Pussyfootin' (Atlantic)
25. Elliott Murphy: Aquashow (Polydor)
26. Neu: Neu 2 (United Artists)
27. Stevie Wonder: Innervisions (Motown)
28. Sun Ra: Space is the Place (Impulse)
29. Lou Reed: Berlin (RCA)
30. Big Youth: Screaming Target (Trojan)
31. Peter Hammil: Chameleon In the Shadow (Charisma)
32. Marvin Gaye: Let's Get It On (Motown)
33. Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (Capitol)
34. Gato Barbieri: Chapter One: Latin America (Impulse)
35. Faust: The Faust Tapes (Virgin)
36. The Faces: Oh La La (Warner Brothers)
37. Gram Parsons: GP (Reprise)
38. Bob Marley & the Wailers: Catch A Fire (Island)
39. Jeff Beck: Beck Ola (Epic)
40. Cockney Rebel: The Human Managerie (EMI)
41. ZZ Top: Tres Hombres (Warner Brothers)
42. The Kinks: Preservation Act 1 (RCA)
43. Henry Cow: Legend (Vigin)
44. The Rolling Stones: Goats Head Soup (Rolling Stones)
45. Roy Wood: Boulders (United Artists)
46. Terry Reid: River (Atlantic)

2009-10-19T05:22:00.000-07:00

In Pulp Fiction the Uma Thurman character, Mia Wallace says there are two kinds of people, Elvis people and Beatles people. She says you can like them both, but you cannot like them both equally. Your preference tells much about what sort of person you are. Obviously, Vincent Vega (Travolta) is an Elvis guy. But for me, the real question has always been: Beatles versus Rolling Stones. These days I think most people consider the Beatles the obvious, logical choice. The Beatles gave six years of brilliant music, 15 (or so) masterful LPs, and then had the good sense to break up and go away. The Rolling Stones stuck around grinding out ever-more forgettable and turgid copies of their gimmicky formula. About twice per decade they drag their frumpy withered, Norman Desmondesque-asses out on the road and crank out the hits one more time. They are an embarrassment of richness. But those gray freaks are not the Rolling Stones I care about. The real Rolling Stones existed for slightly longer the Beatles: England’s Newest Hit Makers (1964) through It’s Only Rock n Roll. (1974). In that brief span the band produced an extraordinary bunch of music that easily earned them the right to call themselves the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band. After 1974, Mick Taylor departed and the Rolling Stones were never quite the Rolling Stones again. They certainly looked like the Rolling Stones. Ron Wood appeared the part of a Rolling Stone, as if picked by a very astute casting director, but the music was never very good again. Their transitional record, Black and Blue had its moments, and Some Girls convinced almost everyone the Rolling Stones were back and better than ever. Somehow, I was not convinced. There was something about Some Girls, forced and phony to my 19-year-old ears. I was drawn to “the new” sounds coming down from New York and across the water from London. Perhaps, it was inevitable I would move beyond the Rolling Stones. My taste shifted markedly at the time away from all the music that had carried me through adolescence. Emotional Rescue proved to be even more of a disappointment. I poured myself into the Ramones, the Clash, Wire, Pere Ubu and other bands that convinced a whole bunch of us there was nothing about the dinosaurs of sixties rock worth remembering. I never bought another new the Rolling Stones’ record. For me the “greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world” ceased to exist. Their hits became so much more background muzak, but I think I recognized the irony implicit in Johnny Rotten’s hand scrawled “I hate Pink Floyd” tee shirt. And I never completely abandoned my love for the decade of great Rolling Stones records. Album per album, those Rolling Stones easily stand up to their less threatening Liverpool cousins. If the “White Album” is height of the Beatles recording career, Exile On Main Street is the Stones’ counter offer. When I am preparing for my time on the deserted island, I will take Exile over The Beatles because obviously I remain a Rolling Stone guy.

BEST LPs of 1972

1. The Rolling Stones: Exile On Main Street (Rolling Stones)
2. Various Artists: Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the first Psychedelic Era: 1965 to 1968 (Sire)
3. Roxy Music: Roxy Music (Island, UK)
4. Faust: Faust So Far (Recommended)
5. Peter Brotzmann: Machine Gun (FMP)
6. Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Blacknus (Atlantic)
7. Anthony Braxton, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Barry Altshul: Circle Paris Concert (ECM)
8. Miles Davis: Live Evil (CBS)
9. David Bowie: The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust (RCA)
10. Al Green: I’m Still In Love With You (Hi)
11. Captain Beefheart: Clear Spot (Reprise)
12. Neil Young: Harvest (Reprise)
13. Gato Barbieri: Last Tango In Paris (United Artists)
14. John Cale: Academy in Peril (Reprise)
15. Ornette Coleman: Skies of America (CBS)
16. Archie Shepp: Attica Blues (Impulse)
17. Neu: Neu! (United Artists)
18. Big Star: Record #1 (Ardent)
19. Al Green: Let’s Stay Together (Hi)
20. Mott the Hoople: All the Young Dudes (CBS)
21. T. Rex: Slider (EMI, UK)
22. Blue Oyster Cult: Blue Oyster Cult (CBS)
23. The Faces: A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse (Warner Brothers)
24. Steve Lacy: The Gap (America, France)
25. Jimmy Smith: Root Down (Verve)
26. Sun Ra: Astro Black (Impulse)
27. Stevie Wonder: Music of My Mind (Motown)
28. Lou Reed: Transformer (RCA)
29. Nick Drake: Pink Moon (Hannibal)
30. Sonny Rollins: Next Album (Milestone)
31. Curtis Mayfield: Superfly (Buddah)
32. Stevie Wonder: Talking Book (Motown)
33. Van Morrison: Saint Dominic’s Preview (Warner Brothers)
34. Janis Joplin: In Concert (CBS)
35. Ann Peebles: Straight From the Heart (Hi)
36. Bobby Womack: Understanding (United Artists)
37. Peter Hammil: Fool’s Mate (Charisma)
38. Aretha Franklin: Young, Gifted & Black (Atlantic)
39. Rod Stewart: Never A Dull Moment (Mercury)
40. Can: Ege Bamyasi (United Artists)
41. Lou Reed: Lou Reed (RCA)
42. The Revolutionary Ensemble: Vietnam (ESP)
43. Van Dyke Parks: Discover America (Warner Brothers)
44. Kraftwerk: 2 (Phillips)

2009-10-10T02:58:00.000-07:00

Let me take a moment to say Barack Obama deserves the peace award. Not for what he has accomplished. Heck, what has he had time to accomplish in 9 months faced with the worst economic disaster of a lifetime and a relentless onslaught from the Republican Gomorrah? (Thank you Max Blumenthal.) Obama deserves the award for that moment when he won his election, that moment when the sane half of our world was able – if for only an instance – able to sigh in relief, able for the first time in a decade to believe maybe things might turn out all right, able to have one second of peace. Then it was gone, but it was worth it. And for that moment, Obama deserves a thousand Nobel prizes.

2009-10-10T01:39:00.000-07:00

The ‘70s get a bad rap in traditional rock music histories, with good reason. Likewise, I always considered mid-decade to be the nadir of the rock era. 1973 through 76 a malaise settled over the great music unhappily branded “classic rock.” Great artists/bands of the 60s were dead or broken up (Hendrix, Joplin, Beatles) or in a period of decline (Dylan, Stones, Beach Boys, Kinks). Yet, the decline of one thing leads to the rise of another. By decade’s end a renaissance in the form of punk/post punk arose putting classic rock to shame, in every way but sales. Even during those supposedly dark dull middle years the proto-punk sounds of Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music, Brian Eno, the New York Dolls, the Dictators and many others kept music exciting. Certainly as early as 1971 there were very few signs of any decline of the empire. In fact, 1971 is a strong year for pop music. Some details of these “best of” posts I should have explained from the beginning. Better now than never. As I have said before, the records are in order of preference. Almost all of my choices are studio albums, but I am including a few truly outstanding “live albums”. I do not intend to include “greatest hits” type records or other similar reissues. But I am including favorite compilation albums good enough to compete. All albums are listed on their original release year, though there is much disagreement in “the historical record” about many of these dates. When there is a discrepancy I am unable to settle, I rely upon memory, gods help us. Lastly, perhaps obviously, the parenthetical words at the end of each listing are the original U.S. label. If a record was not originally issued stateside, I use the original international label.

Best LPs of 1971

1. Sly & the Family Stone: There’s A Riot Goin’ On (Epic)
2. Charles Mingus: Let My Children Hear Music (CBS)
3. David Bowie: Hunky Dory (RCA)
4. Pharoah Sanders: Black Unity (Impulse)
5. Ornette Coleman: Science Fiction (CBS)
6. Can: Tago Mago (United Artist)
7. Derek Bailey: Solo Guitar (Incus)
8. Mott the Hoople: Brain Capers (Atlantic)
9. Nico: Desertshore (Reprise)
10. Miles Davis: Tribute to Jack Johnson (CBS)
11. The Kinks: Muswell Hillbillies (RCA)
12. Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On (Motown)
13. John Cale & Terry Riley: Church of Anthrax (CBS)
14. T. Rex: Electric Warrior (Reprise)
15. The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones)
16. Led Zepplin: 4 (Atlantic)
17. The Doors: LA Woman (Elektra)
18. Steve Lacy: Wordless (Futura, France)
19. Ornette Coleman: Twins (Atlantic)
20. Allman Brothers: At Fillmore East (Capricorn)
21. Derek & The Dominoes: Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs (Atco)
22. Pharoah Sanders: Live At the East (Impulse)
23. John Lennon: Imagine (Apple)
24. Joni Mitchell: Blue (Reprise)
25. Rod Stewart: Every Picture Tells A Story (Mercury)
26. Hampton Greese Band: Music To Eat (CBS)
27. Sam Rivers: Hues (Impulse)
28. Michael Hurley & Pals: Armchair Boogie (Warner Brothers)
29. Kevin Ayers: Shooting At the Moon (Harvest)
30. John Prine: John Prine (Atlantic)
31. Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Schmilsson (RCA)
32. Al Green: Get Next to You (Hi)
33. The Who: Who’s Next (Decca)
34. Mott the Hoople: Wild Life (Atlantic)
35. The Move: Message From the Contry (Capitol)
36. Van Morrison: Tupelo Honey (Warner Brothers)
37. Faust: Faust (Recommended)
38. The Faces: Long Player (Warner Brothers)
39. Amon Duul II: Tanz der Lemminge (United Artists)
40. Bonnie Rait: Bonnie Rait (Warner Brothers)
41. Isaac Hayes: Shaft (Enterprise)
42. The Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin: The Inner Mounting Flame (CBS)
43. Soft Machine: 4th (CBS)
44. Leo Kottke: 6 and 12 String (Takoma)
45. Traffic: Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Island)
46. Van Der Graaf Generator: Pawn Hearts (Charisma)
47. John Fahey: America (Takoma)
48. Captain Beefheart: Spotlight Kid (Reprise)
49. Bobby Womack: Communication (United Artists)
50. David Crosby: If I Could Only Remember My Name (Atlantic)
51. Anne Peebles: Part Time Love (Hi)
52. The Move: Message From the Country (Harvest)
53. Black Sabbath: Masters of Reality (Warner Brothers)
54. Alice Cooper: Killer (Warner Brothers)
55. Alice Cooper: Love it to Death (Warner Brothers)
56. Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (Westbound)
57. Pink Floyd: Meddle (Harvest)
58. Graham Nash: Songs for Beginners (Atlantic)
59. Kraftwerk: Kraftwerk 1 (Phillips)

2009-09-30T02:08:00.000-07:00

In 1970 I turned 11 years old. By the end of that year I was already quite the little record collector geek. I spent every dollar I received in allowance toward records. I owned pretty much everything by the Beatles and the Stones, plus a couple of Joplin records, two by Hendrix, some Zepplin, several C.C.R. records, and one Crosby, Stills & Nash. I even owned a copy of the insane “Wedding Album” about which I could not make much sense. I remember one incident in 1970 that stands out involving another Lennon record. I was very excited about the new “Plastic Ono Band,” a record that turned out to be enormously influential. I knew it was out, somehow. After school I walked to Greenbriar Mall to pick up a copy. But when I got home with the record, purchased from Pennies (the Walmart of that era), my copy was badly warped and unplayable. I was very upset. When my dad came home from work, he decided to help. Together we went back to the discount store. Despite the fact I had no doubt lost my receipt, we got a replacement copy. My dad was a passionate Republican, a rarity among southern conservatives in those very different times, and I am certain he detested John Lennon. Yet, he was a good man. I was his son, and I wanted the record. He kindly helped me get a new, playable copy of this brilliant secularist, “leftist propaganda” record, a classic that remains my favorite of 1970, and one of my favorite records of any year.

Best LPs of 1970

1. John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)
2. The Stooges: Funhouse (Elektra)
3. Captain Beefheart: Lick My Decals Off Baby (Straight)
4. Leonard Cohen: Songs of Love and Hate (CBS)
5. David Bowie: The Man Who Sold the World (RCA)
6. The Beatles: Let It Be (Apple)
7. Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (CBS)
8. Peter Brotzmann: Balls (FMP)
9. The Velvet Underground: Loaded (Cotillion)
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Cosmos Factory (Fantasy)
11. The Beatles: Hey Jude (Apple)
12. Can: Soundtracks (Liberty)
13. Allman Brothers Band: Idlewind South (Capricorn)
14. Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead (Warner Brothers)
15. The Kinks: Lola Vs Powerman (Reprise)
16. Neil Young: After the Gold Rush (Reprise)
17. Alice Coltrane: Journey In Satchidananda (Impulse)
18. Van Morrison: Moondance (Warner Brothers)
19. Sun Ra: My Brother the Wind: Volume 1 (Saturn Research)
20. Sun Ra: The Night of the Purple Moon (Saturn Research)
21. Syd Barrett: Madcap Laughs (Harvest)
22. Syd Barrett: Syd Barrett (Harvest)
23. John Cale: Vintage Violence (CBS)
24. Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)
25. Bob Segar: Mongrel (Capitol)
26. Phil Ochs: Greatest Hits (A&M)
27. Mott the Hoople: Mad Shadows (Atlantic)
28. The Rolling Stones: Get Yer Ya’ Yas Out (London)
29. James Brown: Sex Machine (King)
30. Janis Joplin: Pearl (Columbia)
31. Nick Drake: Bryter Later (Hannibal)
32. AMM: Live Electronic Music Improvised (Mainstream)
33. Amon Duul: Amon Duul (Prophesy)
34. The Move: Shazam (Regal Zonophone, UK)
35. T. Rex: T. Rex (Fly)
36. Swamp Dog: Total Destruction to Your Mind (Canyon)
37. Steve Reich: Four Organs/Phase Patterns (Shandar)
38. Tim Buckley: Lorca (Elektra)
39. Al Green: Green Is Blues (Hi)
40. Paul McCartney: McCartney (Apple)
41. Bob Dylan: Self Portrait (CBS)
42. The Faces: First Step (Warner Brothers)
43. Traffic: John Barlycorn Must Die (United Artists)
44. Led Zepplin: 3 (Atlantic)
45. Rod Stewart: Gasoline Alley (Mercury)
46. Johnny Winter: Second Winter (CBS)
47. Grateful Dead: American Beauty (Reprise)
48. Cluster: Klopfzeichen (Schwann)
49. Black Sabbath: Paranoid (Warner Brothers)
50. Isaac Hayes: The Isaac Hayes Movement (Enterprise)
51. Rod Stewart: An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down (Vertigo, UK)
52. Randy Newman: 12 Songs (Reprise)
53. George Harrison: All Things Must Pass (Apple)
54. The Temptations: Psychedelic Shack (Motown)
55. King Crimson: Lizards (Atlantic)
56. MC5: Back in the U.S.A. (Atlantic)
57. Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Waters (Columbia)
58. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Willie & the Poor Boys (Fantasy)
59. Bob Dylan: New Morning (CBS)
60. Beach Boys: Sunflower (Capitol)
61. Crosby Stills Nash & Young: Déjà vu (Atlantic)
62. The Doors: Morrison Hotel (Elektra)
63. The Jackson Five: ABC (Motown)
64. Sly & the Family Stone: Whole New Thing (Epic)

2009-09-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

The usual cliché ridden way of retelling the death of “the sixties” is to mention the murder at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival. A man was murdered, as the Rolling Stones grooved on “Under My Thumb” but yards away and the movie cameras kept rolling. That was December 6th, 1969. A more politically minded historian will look elsewhere for a metaphoric decade death: to the National Convention of S.D.S. -- Students for a Democratic Society. The organization split into several smaller, more revolutionary pieces including what would become the Weather Underground. That was June 25th, 1969. Obviously, the sixties ended elsewhere, everywhere on December 31st. The next day was the seventies. However, one wants to tell this story, 1969 was not a time of love and happiness, much less peace. Nevertheless there was a great deal of wonderful music left behind for our listening pleasure all these years later. As thorough as I attempt to make my “best of” lists, I am bound to forget some things. I am simply ignorant of many other things, and despite their length, these lists really are what I consider to be the best music of a given year. I am leaving off records I like but cannot honestly claim are the best of anything. Regardless of all these records I claim to be leaving off, there are many I must include. Like the year before it and the year after, 1969 was very good year for music if not for the humanity.

Best LPs of 1969

1. The Stooges: The Stooges (Elektra)
2. Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica (Reprise)
3. Cecil Taylor: The Great Concert (Prestige)
4. The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (London)
5. The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground (MGM)
6. Ornette Coleman: Ornette at 12 (Impulse)
7. Pharoah Sanders: Karma (Impulse)
8. Various: New Sounds In Electronic Music (Odssey)
9. Can: Monster Movie (United Artists)
10. The Kinks: Arthur or Decline of the British Empire (Reprise)
11. Allman Brothers Band: Allman Brothers Band (Capricorn)
12. Grachan Moncur III: New Africa (BYG)
13. The Band: The Band (Capitol)
14. Roland Kirk: Volunteered Slavery (Atlantic)
15. MC5: Kick Out the Jams (Elektra)
16. Mott the Hoople: Mott the Hoople (Atlantic)
17. Pharoah Sanders: Jewels of Thought (Impulse)
18. Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Reprise)
19. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Green River (Fantasy)
20. Led Zepplin: 2 (Atlantic)
21. Phil Ochs: Rehearsals for Retirement (A&M)
22. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bayou Country (Fantasy)
23. Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left (Hannibal)
24. Neil Young: Neil Young (Reprise)
25. Janis Joplin: I Got Dem Ol Kozmic Blues Again Mama (CBS)
26. Dusty Springfield: Dusty In Memphis (Atlantic)
27. Amon Duul: Phallus Dei (Liberty)
28. Elvis Presley: From Elvis In Memphis (RCA)
29. Elvis Presley: From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis (RCA)
30. Silver Apples: Contact (Kapp)
31. King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King (Atlantic)
32. Skip Spence: Oar (CBS)
33. Bob Dylan: Nashville Skyline (CBS)
34. Blind Faith: Blind Faith (Atco)
35. Traffic: Heaven Is In Your Mind (United Artists)
36. Sly & the Family Stone: Stand (Epic)
37. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Creedence Clearwater Revival (Fantasy)
38. James Brown: Say It Loud, I’m Black & I’m Proud (King)
39. The Godz: The Third Testament (ESP)
40. Isaac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul (Enterprise)
41. Crosby Stills & Nash (Atlantic)
42. Cromagnon: Orgasm (ESP)
43. Bob Segar: Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man (Capitol)
44. Etta James: Tell Mama (Chess)
45. Harry Nilsson: Harry (RCA)
46. Leo Kottke: 12 String Blues (Oblivion)

2009-09-22T03:51:00.000-07:00

Procol Harum: Shine On Brightly (A&M, 1968); Procol Harum: Procol Harum (Deram, 1967) Let’s put this into the category of “one is never too old to learn a thing or three.” Thinking about sixties music, as I have been doing more than usual lately, I kept returning to that wonderful, over-played Procol Harum song “Whiter Shade of Pale,” off the band’s self titled first album from 1967. I once owned a copy of that L.P., but I had not heard it in years. I did not remember much about it, other than the one good single. So I figured Procol Harum was pretty much a one-shot band, despite the fact I knew they get much credit for inventing a certain subset of prog rock. Considering the fact these guys are credited with inspiring Electric Light Orchestra and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, I figured I was not risking much not bothering to dig up their dusty old sides for a proper listen. Yet, there was a nagging doubt. Since posting my “best of” list for 1968, I have picked up used copies of Shine On Brightly and Procol Harum. Most of the music on the 2nd Procol Harum record is closer to Blond On Blonde or Music From Big Pink than dismal prog rock. Side one is terrific, by any reasonable standards: gritty, catchy, & simply good blues rock. Unfortunately, the 17 minute, “In Held Twas in I” that takes up most of side two is as preposterous as its name, despite some good bits. Overall the Procol Harum second is an album that deserves to be remembered, replayed, and included on stupid “best of ‘68” lists: word to the wise. Their first record is even better. “Whiter Shade of Pale” is not the centerpiece, but an after thought. The famous single with its Bach derived melody was recorded first, with a somewhat different lineup, and its placement at the beginning of the album was purely for commercial purposes. It even has one of those annoying top 40 fade-away endings, that leaves the listener wondering, what happened to the rest of the song. Afterwards, the album proper begins. And it is a stomping good blues bar band record. Many will be familiar with another Procol Harum hit included: “Conquistador,” but there is plenty that will be unfamiliar to most to recommend this record, with little prog rock pretentiousness to get in the way. Highway 61 Revisited seems to be the stepping off point for this band at this early stage in their career. These Brits manage to pull off some very American sounding rock with aplomb. Guitarist Robin Trower, and the double keyboards of Gary Brooker (piano) and Matthew Fisher (organ) ensure the music is always on target. If there is a weakness it is the meandering metaphysics of Keith Reid’s lyrics, but at this early stage Reid’s bag of gimmicks is still fresh enough to work, even 40 years later. Give Procol Harum a listen or re-listen. I did and was surprised.

2009-09-19T01:48:00.000-07:00

1968 was a year of enormous upheaval and tragedy, a year that defined the “60s” as an idea, not simply as an historical moment. 1968 was also perhaps the most important year for 20th century popular music. Many of the great albums of this iconic year have “stood the test of time,” while resisting the corrupting influence of turning to muzak: a bland soundtrack for the sales pitch of soaps and automobiles. Unfortunately, most of the musicians fail miserably when tested by a taste of cash, and it is hard to fault them for wanting to continue to be compensated for their art, even at the risk of turning said art into the artifice of commerce. Those few musicians that have maintained integrity are that much more worthy of our honor. There was a series of car commercials a few years back that began with the words: “break through,” followed by a Zepplin tune. The obvious first choice was Jim Morrison singing: “break on through to the other side.” We were spared that disgrace through the dignity and integrity of Ray Manzarek and the surviving members of the Doors. Sadly the former Doors are a small minority. Yet much of the music of the 60s remains powerful, regardless of repetition and indignity.

Best LPs of 1968

1. The Velvet Underground: White Light/ White Heat (Verve)
2. The Band: Music From Big Pink (Capitol)
3. Nico: Marble Index (Elektra)
4. The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet (London)
5. The Kinks: Village Green Preservation Society (Reprise)
6. Miles Davis: Filles de Kilimanjaro (CBS)
7. Captain Beefheart: Strickly Personal (Blue Thumb)
8. Albert Ayler: In Greenwich Village (Impulse)
9. Van Morrison: Astral Weeks (Warner Brothers)
10. Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding (CBS)
11. Anthony Braxton: For Alto (Delmark)
12. Big Brother & Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (CBS)
13. Byrds: Notorious Byrd Brothers (CBS)
14. Phil Ochs: Tape From California (A&M)
15. Skip James: Devil Got My Woman (Vanguard)
16. Van Dyke Parks: Song Cycle (Warner Brothers)
17. Cream: Wheels On Fire (Atco)
18. Leonard Cohen: Songs of Leonard Cohen (CBS)
19. Albert King: Live Wire Blues Power (Stax)
20. Miles Davis: In the Sky (CBS)
21. The Beatles: The Beatles (Apple)
22. Led Zepplin: Led Zepplin (Atlantic)
23. Jeff Beck: Truth (Epic)
24. Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison (CBS)
25. Ornette Coleman: Love Call (Blue Note)
26. Otis Redding: The Dock of the Bay (Atco)
27. Pearls Before Swine: Balaklava (ESP)
28. Duke Ellington: And His Mother Called Him Bill (RCA)
29. The Move: The Move (Regal Zonophone, UK)
30. Harry Nilsson: Aerial Ballet (RCA)
31. Traffic: Traffic (United Artists)
32. Silver Apples: Silver Apples (Kapp)
33. The Who: Magic Bus (Decca)
34. The Doors: Waiting for the Sun (Elektra)
35. Sly & the Family Stone: Life (Epic)
36. Elmore James / John Brim: Tough (Blue Horizon)
37. Don Cherry: Eternal Rhythm (MPS)
38. Anthony Braxton: 3 Compositions of New Jazz (Delmark)
39. Ornette Coleman: New York Is Now (Blue Note)
40. The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour (Capitol)
41. Albert Ayler: New Grass (Impulse)
42. Pink Floyd: Saucerful of Secrets (Tower)
43. Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo (CBS)
44. Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul (Atlantic)
45. Oscar Peterson: My Favorite Instrument (Verve)
46. Van der Graaf Generator: Aerosol Grey Machine
47. Terry Reid: Bang Bang Your’re Terry Reid (Epic)
48. John Fahey: Death Chants & Breakdowns (Takoma Records)
49. George Jones & Melba Montgomery: George Jones & Melba Montgomery
50. Albert Ayler: Love Cry (Impulse)
51. Nina Simone: ‘Nuff Said
52. The Seeds: Raw & Alive: In Concert At Merlin’s Music Box (GNP)
53. Sly & the Family Stone: Dance to the Music (Epic)
54. Laura Nyro: Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (CBS)
55. Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band: Doughnuts In Granny’s Greenhouse (Liberty UK)

2009-09-05T02:54:00.000-07:00

According to standard retellings of the history of pop music, 1967 is a pivotal year. To my ears it is pivotal more for the years that spin around it, than for its music. The two years before and three years that follow are the truly great years of modern rock and jazz. It seems too obvious to say out loud that the other great period of rock redemption is 1977 through ‘82. More on that topic will follow. None of which is to say that ‘67 did not produce some of the greatest music of any era. It was the year of Sgt Peppers, an important record that changed the way others thought about music more than any other rock record. Yet Sgt Peppers changed music in many ways that were not good, and the vast majority of its imitators were awful. In retrospect Sgt Peppers sounds like one of the weakest of the Beatles’ remarkable catalogue. On a very different hand, ’67 was the year of another trendsetter: The Velvet Underground & Nico, a record that sounds contemporary and forward reaching 40 plus years after its release. And it is a record that continues to produce stylish imitators. My favorite records of 2009 include several VU sound-a-likes. No one with ears should describe as “dated” the 21st century sound of Brian Jonestown Massacre; yet B.J.M. is drenched in the sounds of the Velvet Underground. Full disclosure: the music of Brian Jonestown Massacre is likewise influenced by Sgt Peppers and more particularly by the Rolling Stones response: Their Satanic Majesties Request. And I can hear keys clicking from those aching to post a comments describing B.J.M. as “dated” and worse. I said you had to have ears.

Best Lps of 1967

1. The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico (Verve)
2. AMM: Ammmusic (Elektra)
3. Love: Forever Changes (Elektra)
4. The Kinks: Something Else (Reprise)
5. The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile (Capitol)
6. Buffalo Springfield: Again (Atco)
7. Miles Davis: Miles Smiles (CBS)
8. Jimi Hendrix: Axis Bold As Love (Reprise)
9. Roland Kirk: The Inflated Tear (Atlantic)
10. Buffalo Springfield: Buffalo Springfield (Atco)
11. Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced (Reprise)
12. John Fahey: The Transformation of Blind Joe Death (Takoma)
13. Captain Beefheart: Safe As Milk (Buddah)
14. Nico: Chelsea Girls (MGM, UK)
15. The Doors: The Doors (Elektra)
16. Tim Buckley: Tim Buckley (Elektra)
17. James Brown: Cold Sweat (King)
18. Pink Floyd: Pipers At the Gates of Dawn (Tower)
19. Sun Ra: Atlantis (Saturn)
20. James Brown: Sings Raw Soul (King)
21. Tim Buckley: Goodbye & Hello (Elektra)
22. The Rolling Stones: Between the Buttons (London)
23. The Who: Sell Out (Decca)
24. The Byrds: Younger than Yesterday (CBS)
25. Miles Davis: Sorcerer (CBS)
26. Jackie McLean: New and Old Gospel (Blue Note)
27. Jackie McLean: Demon’s Dance (Blue Note)
28. Holy Modal Rounders: Indian War Hoop (ESP)
29. The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (London)
30. Pearls Before Swine: One Nation Underground (ESP)
31. Love: Da Capo (Elektra)
32. Phil Ochs: Pleasure of the Harbour (A&M)
33. The Godz: 2 (ESP)
34. Booker T. & the MG’s: Back To Back (Stax)
35. The Amboy Dukes: Amboy Dukes (Repertoire)
36. John Fahey: Requia & Other Compositions for Solo Guitar (Vanguard)
37. The Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (Capitol)
38. Small Faces: Odgens Nut Gone Flake (Immediate)
39. Traffic: Mr Fantasy (United Artists)
40. Bonzo Dog Band: Gorilla (Liberty, UK)
41. Ten Years After: Ten Years After (Deram)
42. Red Crayola: Parable of Arable Lands (International Artists)
43. Shadows of Knight: Back Door Man (Dunwich)

2009-08-29T03:23:00.000-07:00

The long project I began with the previous post continues below. My “best of” lists are in order of preference. If I return to a list months or years later, there would no doubt be changes in the order, but many of these choices have remained constant for decades, and my top choices tend to be unchanging. Also, I will probably forget some important favorites. Nevertheless, these are as close to accurate as I can get to listing of my favorite jazz and pop records

The Best LPs of 1966

1. Cecil Taylor: Unit Structures (Blue Note)
2. Sun Ra: Nothing Is (ESP)
3. Bill Dixon: Intents & Purposes (RCA)
4. The Kinks: Face To Face (Reprise)
5. Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde (CBS)
6. Albert Ayler: At Slug’s Saloon, Vol 1 (ESP)
7. Albert Ayler: At Slug’s Saloon, Vol 2 (ESP)
8. The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (Capitol)
9. Otis Redding: Dictionary of Soul (Atlantic)
10. Love: Love (Elektra)
11. The Rolling Stones: Aftermath (London)
12. The Godz: Contact High With the Godz (ESP)
13. Sonny Simmons: Staying on the Watch (ESP)
14. Pharoah Sanders: Tauhid (Impulse)
15. Byrds: 5th Dimension (Columbia)
16. The Beatles: Yesterday & Today (Capitol)
17. Nina Simone: High Priestess of Soul (Philips)
18. Simon & Garfunkel: Parsley Sage Rosemary & Thyme (CBS)
19. Sam Rivers: Involution (Blue Note)
20. Sam Rivers: A New Conception (Blue Note)
21. Cecil Taylor: Conquistador (Blue Note)
22. Sonny Rollins: East Broadway Rundown (Impulse)
23. Them: Them (Parrot)
24. Them: Them Again (Parrot)
25. Marion Brown: Three for Shepp (Impulse)
26. Tim Buckley: Tim Buckley (Elektra)
27. The Beatles: Rubber Soul (Capitol)
28. Nina Simone: Sings the Blues (RCA)
29. Wes Montgomery: Smokin’ at the Half Note (Verve)
30. Steve Lacy: The Forest and the Zoo (ESP)
31. The Beatles: Revolver (Capitol)
32. The Who: A Quick One/Happy Jack (Reaction, UK)
33. Byrds: Turn Turn Turn (CBS)
34. Simon & Garfunkel: The Sound of Silence (CBS)
35. Various Artists: The East Village Other (ESP)
36. The Yardbirds: Over Under Sideways Down (Epic)
37. The Thirteenth Floor Elevators: The Psychedelic Sounds (International Artists)
38. Aretha Franklin: Soul Sister (CBS)
39. John Fahey: John Fahey (Vanguard)
40. Tim Hardin: Tim Hardin (Verve)

2009-08-21T01:21:00.000-07:00

A while back I hinted that I might at some point post my "ten best lists" of records for previous years. After about five minutes thought, I have concluded that this terrible idea was impossible to resist. I considered going back as far as 1959 because among other reasons, that was the year I was born and the year of perhaps the first L.P. masterpiece, Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue." I settled upon 1965 because that is the first year to which I can do justice. To finish this project I will no doubt be posting this things for months, if not years to come. I admit it is a lot of work for something perhaps no one will care about. So be it. In many ways I believe this futile effort is the spirit of this foolish thing called "blogging"

BEST LPs of 1965

1. John Coltrane: Ascension (Impulse)
2. John Coltrane: Meditations (Impulse)
3. Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia)
4. Albert Ayler: Bells (ESP)
5. Albert Ayler: Spirits Rejoice (ESP)
6. Sun Ra: The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Volume 1 (ESP)
7. Sun Ra: The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Volume 2 (ESP)
8. Miles Davis: E.S.P. (CBS)
9. The Rolling Stones: Out of Our Heads (London)
10. The Rolling Stones: Now (London)
11. Jackie McLean: Right Now (Blue Note)
12. Frank Wright Trio (ESP)
13. Otis Redding: Pain In My Heart (Atlantic)
14. The Beatles: The Beatles 65 (Capitol)
15. The Beatles: The Beatles VI (Capitol)
16. Patty Waters Sings (ESP)
17. Archie Shepp: Fire Music (Impulse)
18. Jackie McLean: Consequence (Blue Note)
19. Milford Graves Percussion Ensemble (ESP)
20. Pharoah Sanders: Pharoah’s First (ESP)
21. John Coltrane: Om (Impulse)
22. Jackie McLean: Consequences (Blue Note)
23. The Who: My Generation (Brunswick)
24. The Byrds: Mr. Tamborine Man (CBS)
25. The Kinks: Kinks Size (Reprise)
26. The Kinks: Kinda Kinks (Reprise)
27. The Fugs: The Fugs First Album (ESP)
28. Nina Simone: I Put a Spell On You (Mercury)
29. Sonny Rollins: On Impulse (Impulse)
30. The Yardbirds: Having a Rave Up (Epic)
31. The Pretty Things (Fontana)
32. The Beach Boys: Today (Capitol)
33. The Supremes: Where Did Our Love Go? (Motown)

2009-07-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

Paul Hemphill: Nashville Sound (Simon & Schuster 1970/everthemore 2005) A Cappella Books and Atlanta lost a great friend and talent with the recent passing of versatile writer, Paul Hemphill. Paul wrote with wit and precision, fiction and non-fiction on a variety of subjects: sports, music, and the melting pot called southern culture. Considered by some to be the best book ever written about country music, Paul's first book, Nashville Sound is without a doubt an honest look into the "real" country music that once poured with ease and without pretense from the small sound studios of Tennessee. That long gone world might as well be of another planet as far as we have come since then.

2009-06-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

“White riot - I wanna riot. White riot - a riot of my own”, the Clash.

Mark Rudd: Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen (William Morrow, 2009)
Bill Ayers: Fugitive Days: A Memoir (Beacon Press, 2001/2009)
Cathy Wilkerson: Flying Close to the Sun (Seven Stories, 2007/2009)
Carl Oglesby: Ravens in the Storm: A Personal History of the 1960s Antiwar Movement (Scribner 2008)

Perhaps the happiest and most unexpected sidebar to the mass opposition to George W. Bush’s horrific quagmire in Iraq was the election of the United States’ first African-American president, Barack Obama. During that long, dirty election cycle the Republican Party and its demagogic partisans employed an array of craven political tricks. One of the most absurd attempts to damage Obama’s reputation by association was to throw around the name of one of the pop stars of the 1960s’ New Left, Bill Ayers. Obama indeed had some passing encounter with this ex-Weatherman. As a result for months not a day passed without Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and their imitators mentioning the nominees’ “terrorist friend” Bill Ayers. This time around these insane efforts to smear a decent candidate were ineffectual and failed utterly. One lucky consequence of this happy failure is the publication (in paperback) of a new edition of Ayers’ poetic 2001 memoir, Fugitive Days.

The recent, at last report on-going war in Iraq brought on inevitable comparisons to Vietnam. The imperialist invasion and occupation of a small sovereign state, the youth led antiwar movement at home, the drawn out guerilla resistance abroad -- the parallels between these two wars are too obvious for even the most cloudy of minds to ignore. And the accompanying, renewed interest in all things 60s has brought on a slew of books: reprints of 1960s classics and new studies, histories and biographies. I have previously attempted to draw some attention to what I considered some of the better of these works, paying close attention to works related to the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party and the Weather Underground/SDS. Recently several memoirs by leaders of the later organization have been published. Together the autobiographies of Mark Rudd, Cathy Wilkerson, Carl Oglesby and Bill Ayers trace how in five years a New Left anti-racist predominately white student organization went from activism to revolution, from “bring the boys home” to “bring the war home” from “we shall overcome” to “pick up the gun”.

Bill Ayers was one of the three principle leaders of one of the more militant and violent ultra-leftist organizations in American history. He turns out to be a gentle, soft-spoken man. And today appears the model of the clichéd pacifists liberal. When he is not trying to destroy America, Ayers has a day job as a professor of education. In his Jekyll persona, he has written books with such titles as A Kind and Just Parent. Ayers and fellow ex-Weather leader Bernardine Dohrn seem to be wonderful parents. The couple has raised three children under difficult circumstances. Their third child, Chesa Boudin was adopted after his birth parents were arrested and given life sentences for their role in the ill fated 1981 Brinks robbery on behalf of the Black Revolutionary Army. Chesa has grown to be a thoughtful and talented writer and activist himself. .

“Back in the day”, least toward the later end of “back in the day,” Ayers and Dohrn, with their rock star good looks and revolutionary fervor, were the Bonnie & Clyde, the Bogart and Bacall, the Mick and Marianne of the New Left, photogenic heroes of the revolution. As much as it is the story of revolution brewing in the homeland, Fugitive Days is something of a love story. It is the story of one painful love, lost to revolutionary misfire, and of another born from that same miserable accidental massacre. Diana Oughton was lost along with Terry Robbins and Teddy Gold to the 1970 Weatherman townhouse explosion, and that is where Fugitive Days begins. Ayers is the disciplined young soldier of the revolution waiting every night at a pre-specified time for a phone call, a call which turns out to be news of the death of his girlfriend: Oughton. Oddly enough the call was delivered by a woman, a voice on the other end of the line, later to be Ayers’ life partner, wife and mother of his children: Dohrn. Around this tale of tragedy and romance, Ayers wraps the story of a country at war and at war with itself. He is the story’s tragic hero in the old sense of that word, hubris and all.

In his own memoir, Underground, Mark Rudd’s descriptions of Ayers and Dohrn are anything but heroic. His description of himself is more negative still. The young activist and his friends come across as youthful know-it-alls unwilling to listen to any difference of opinion. In many ways their flaws are indicative of leftist radicals of any age and all eras. The slightest deviation from the correct point of view is quickly dismissed as a “right turn” or as “opportunism”, in the nomenclature of Mao’s then influential Cultural Revolution.

There is a great tradition of arguing amongst ourselves on the left over fine points of barely comprehensible political dogma, while the real “rightist” sit comfortable at the seats of power decade upon decade crushing resistance, committing all manner of crimes against humans, and stealing from the poor to feed themselves. This is exactly what happened while SDS then the Weathermen then the W.U.O. fragmented into ever smaller and ineffectual cliques. The organization’s self destruction was helped by the infamous tactics of Cointelpro (a.k.a. counterintelligence programs), but mostly Weather destroyed itself. The war and the Nixon administration came to end by means of mass opposition and the president’s own bumbling paranoia. One excellent point made by Rudd is the greatest believer in Weather after Weather was the Nixon administration.

Thus it is with justification Rudd paints a negative picture of the Weather leadership of Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones and their intra-organizational sectarian squabbles. Unfortunately this criticism makes light of the thoughtful political analysis within the pages of Prairie Fire (a self published Weather book), Osawatomie (the short lived Weather magazine) and elsewhere, analysis that is perhaps Weather’s greatest legacy. Also one must consider the source. Rudd was one of the leaders of the “action faction” of Columbia SDS. He was one of key people who helped to push all of SDS in the direction of an ever more macho brand of militancy. Yet, by his own account he was remarkably tentative at almost every stage of this push toward revolution. Leading his troops to battle, this comic book Custer seemed to have no idea what he was doing or what to do next. This is no surprise considering that he and all of the New Left were in Bill Ayers’ words “so very young,” and the sad fact is youth does not always beat experience.

In some ways Wilkerson’s Flying Close to the Sun is the most ambitious of the four memoirs. It is certainly the most demanding with its somewhat scholarly, sometimes dry tone. Her style is seldom as infectious as Rudd’s or as naturally poetic as Ayers, but she manages to tell an emotionally devastating tale. Considering the fact she was one of the two women who walked out alive from the infamous townhouse explosion that killed three of her friends, this was perhaps inevitable. More than her fellow memoirist, Wilkerson tells the story of the movement in its whole messy multifaceted complexity, and how it related to her own life and ever-changing political point-of-view. She is critical of mistakes made by herself and others, yet compassionate in her analysis. She remains committed to radical change, as do the other ex-SDS memoirists. More than the others, Wilkerson is able to describe the many directions at once the movement was being pulled. She keeps a remarkably positive, in-the-moment tone. When SDS begins to come undone, one feels Wilkerson’s agony all these years later as she describes how: “all of a sudden, people who were my housemates and friends were no longer speaking to me nor I to them. Our family was breaking up.”

Of our four SDS memoirist Carl Oglesby was the only young radical who did not turn the corner toward revolution. He remained true to the spirit of nonviolent resistance, refusing ever to embrace guns and bombs as tools for social change. He calls himself a “moderate”, which has nothing to do with the contemporary notion of what that word has unfortunately come to mean. In an era in which our moderate Democratic president is called a radical, Oglesby is certainly not what media pundits call “moderate”. Nevertheless, he was not involved with the radical Weathermen, did not go underground, did not find his face on post office walls among the FBI’s “most wanted” criminals. Despite some lack of drama, his memoir is in many ways the most fascinating of these four. It would be worth reading if only for his description of 1967 Human Rights Tribunal in Copenhagen and Stockholm in which he participated with Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russell, Simone de Beauvoir, Vlado Dedijer, Isaac Deutscher, Stokely Carmichael, Julius Lester, and others.

Ravens in the Storm is a book worth reading for many other reasons, not least is Oglesby’s recollections of conversations he had forty years ago. In his introduction called “A Note on Memory”, Oglesby explains these accounts are based mostly on notes he took at the time. Elsewhere memory is supplemented – like other recent studies of 1960s era radicals – by the release of FBI files, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act and the bull-doggedly determined diligence of a few leftist lawyers. Regardless of what tools he used to recreate these conversations, Oglesby deserves considerable credit for the lengthy dialogues brought back into the light all these years later. Doubtless, his memories are imperfect, but as a person with a notoriously bad memory, I am amazed what has been recalled.

Bernardine Dohrn was a fearless, brilliantly bold orator, but her youthful, fierce commitment to change by any means often gave rise to sound bites that are ugly and cruel at a half century’s remove. Many infamous, often reprinted quotes have been attributed to Dohrn. According to Oglesby’s account she was no less bold in her private conversations. There is a lengthy and extraordinary talk between Oglesby and Dohrn regarding a disagreement over tactics: the never to-be-resolved argument of pacifist resistance versus violent revolution that would shortly turn SDS against itself, and famously rip that organization asunder. Unfortunately, the missing point-of-view in this complex story is Dohrn’s. Hers is a memoir we need to read. Let us hope Bernardine Dohrn is now putting the finishing touches upon that book-to-be.

As mentioned above, during the recent presidential election, conservative demagogues repeatedly referred to Barack Obama’s “friend” Bill Ayers as a terrorist. To my knowledge these same right wing commentators did not possess any quotes where Ayers called himself a terrorist. This should not surprise. History records few instances of anyone referring to themselves in such terms, but Ravens in the Storm quotes Ayers’ current partner and wife coming very close to saying exactly that, in an exchange that is stunning. The conversation between Oglesby and Dohrn extends over several pages, until the two approach opposing and inextricable positions.
Dohrn: “We are enemies of the state.” Oglesby: “Sounds like a rock band.”

She didn’t laugh. Her face was not hard but set. I figured I had to keep trying. I said, “Violence, my friend, is exactly what the reactionaries want from us.” Incorrect,” she said with a little smile. ‘The hawks and their liberal allies want an America that’s willing to accept the war even if it doesn’t like it. Sure, they’ll permit a few antiwar rallies to show the other tyrannies of the world how irrelevant free speech is. Okay? But they don’t want American blood to be shed in American streets. The hawks do not want a turbulent America, a America terrorized – yes, terrorized – by the threat of violence from the revolutionary left.”

From Oglesby’s way of looking, Cointelpro and the Weathermen were “born of the same womb”. He suggests: “Given that provocateurism is the favorite tactic for secret police attacks on dissent, we would be foolish not to wonder” if these two “might be is some way connected”. It is indication how fresh his 1960s’ wounds remain that Oglesby would hint at such a thing. He immediately follows, admitting he “knew many of the Weathermen intimately and cannot bring myself to believe they were any other than honest if misguided militants.” In fact, we know as conclusively as possible, only one FBI agent was able to infiltrate Weather. That one infiltrator was Larry Grathwohl, a short-lived and overly enthusiastic Weatherman. Due to a premature sting operation, the FBI was forced to pull their agent. Instead of bringing down the Weathermen, Grathwohl published a book. Bringing Down America: An FBI Informant with the Weathermen (Arlington House, 1976) is a reprehensible but fascinating piece of anti-left propaganda.

Oglesby cannot be faulted for remaining hurt and critical of his former comrades. Regardless of what “errors” he was guilty, Oglesby was clearly a well-intentioned member of the movement, and certainly not a government planted informer. According to his own account in Ravens in the Storm, this later accusation was made during his expulsion from SDS. The chapter called “Star-Chambered in Texas” is painful to read. At a small semi-secret meeting in Austin, March 1969, Oglesby met with a group of his fellow SDSers including members of the elected National Council. (Though the meeting was not secret enough to prevent it being recorded by the FBI!) Oglesby says he was there to propose SDS send a mass force to Cuba to help cut sugar cane. Thus SDS could assist the Castro government to achieve a record-breaking 10 million ton harvest. After he made this proposal, the subject of the meeting turned into an assault upon his revolutionary credentials, coordinated by Dohrn and a woman named Arlen Bergman. The fact of the matter is that short of being an agent of the government, Oglesby was guilty of what he was accused. He was not ready for revolution. He admits as much, and he admitted it in Austin, and in retrospect neither were his accusers. They wanted revolution, but they were not ready. Sadly it was their errors that broke the movement in to pieces. If I had been there with them, I probably would have followed them on that path to destruction. And if they could do it again, they probably would do it again. None of which disproves Ogelsby’s point, then or now.

As I type, all these titles are in print, though the Oglesby book might not be available much longer. There appear to be no plans for Ravens in the Storm in paperback. On the other hand, Wilkerson’s Flying Close to the Sun is scheduled to come out in paperback soon. Ayers’ Fugitive Days was issued in soft cover in January. Rudd’s Underground was recently released in hardcover, but there are no announced plans for a paperback edition. It would be no surprise to see all of these books fall out of print in a handful of years. Similar books about the Panthers and other radical sixties organizers have quickly fallen out of print. Nevertheless, the fast majority of these are readily available for a very few dollars (in many cases a few cents) through such websites as abebooks.com.

In addition to these four SDS memoirs there are numerous other excellent books today’s students of this restless era need to have at hand. Other SDS biographies include Tom Hayden’s Reunion (Random House, 1988) and the family biography, A Radical Line: From the Labor Movement to the Weather Underground, One Family’s Century of Conscience by Thai (son of Jeff) Jones (Free Press, 2004). Two overviews stand above all others: Kirkpatrick Sale’s massive, 750 page history, SDS (Random House, 1973), and my personal favorite work of radical history, Dan Berger’s Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (AK Press, 2006). Those wanting a glimpse into the government’s hopelessly corrupt “legal” attacks upon the anti-war movement will want to look at: The Conspiracy Trial (Bobbs-Merrill, 1970), edited by Judy Clavir and John Spitzer. For a journalistic, down-on-the-street account of the action that led to that same “conspiracy” trial, there is nothing to compare to the recently re-issued in paperback: No One Was Killed: The Democratic National Convention, August 1968 (University of Chicago, 2009) by John Schultz. And lastly, to begin to understand how far our government was/is willing to go to destroy its internal enemies, everyone should read the brilliant study by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall of counter intelligence against Black Liberation movements, New Left and other progressive/leftist groups that threatened the status quo: The COINTELPRO Papers (South End Press, 2002).

2009-05-17T03:07:00.000-07:00

WORD OF THE DAY: Flibbertigibbet

I found this one reading Harrison Salisbury’s introduction to At the Barricades: the Memoirs of Rebel Journalist Wilfred Burchett (MacMillan: Australia, 1981). Salisbury assures us Burchett was not “in any sense a flibbertigibbet.” From the context I feared this wonderful appearing word might mean something like the dreadful, much tossed about phrase of T.V. and radio talkers: “flip flopper,” but I was happily proven to be wrong. The first place I checked was my handy Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (G & C Merriam, 1976), and learned a flibbertigibbet is “a silly flighty person.” As usual my The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: Thumb Index Edition (Clarendon Press, 1993) gave me much more. According to this two volume, if not quite exhaustive, set a flibbertigibbet is “a gossip or chatterer. Now” usually “a flighty, irresponsible, or frivolous person.” The “shorter” O.E.D. goes on to tell that flibbertigibbet is a name for “a devil or fiend” -- “after a character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Kenilworth, “an impish mischievous child; a restless person” usually “grotesque in appearance.” This source goes on to quote both Elizabeth Bowen and O. Henry using this fine somewhat onomatopoeic word, which is probably derived from imitation “of meaningless chatter.” Considering I have read most of what Bowen wrote, perhaps I came across this word at some earlier time and simply forgot all about the experience. I hope that possibility and the time I have wasted discussing this does not mean I am a flibbertigibbet. It is hard to know.

2009-02-26T22:25:00.000-08:00

ATLANTA VICE

Below are my contributions to the recent Vice magazine guide to Atlanta, before their copy editors took scissors to my words. The changes that were made are mostly fine with me, and probably improved the pieces. But there is one small change I find rather annoying. I was careful to says “gods know” and “pray” to “gods”. Yet the youngsters at Vice were inclined to turn my pretend paganism into monotheism and remove my not-so-subtle allusion to the world of Battlestar Galactica. On the other hand, I am actually pleased and surprised to learn there exists such a thing as a copy editor in 2009. I thought the kids simply cut and pasted something from the web, turned on the spell check device and called it writing. And on one final hand who or what exactly is a “lugubrious gloaming”?

Elsewhere in the same Atlanta guide someone claims that Benjamin (Smoke) once “hung out” in Little Five Points, which is not exactly an accurate assessment of “back in the day”. What made Little Five Points tolerable then, and as far as I can tell makes it not so bad today is that Little Five Points and the surrounding neighborhoods are a small town next to a mass of noxious urban sprawl. Everyone knows everyone, and people who want to be seen do sometime “hang out” in public places. Benjamin hung out in his various homes: in the Ponce Apartments, in the flatiron building in East Atlanta, in the North High Ridge Apartments, in various duplexes around the neighborhood, in Cabbagetown and finally in the retirement home across from the Majestic where he spent his final months. When he wanted to “go to town” for whatever business he needed to deal with, he went to Little Five Points, and headed home as soon as business was done.

ATLANTA RECORDS

When I walk into a room filled with records, my pulse jumps, my temperature rises, and for an instant I feel something akin to happiness. I don’t know if there is such a thing as a bad independent record store. If there is one, it is not mentioned here. What follows is not a survey of Atlanta’s retail music, but simply a fan’s description of some rooms filled with records. These stores are scattered around in-town Atlanta, but the best area for record shopping is without question Little Five Points.

Wax N Facts (432 Moreland Avenue) is perhaps the grand dad of Atlanta independent records stores. In the thirty plus years I have visited this amazing store, considering how the world has supposedly changed, Wax N Facts really has not, much. When I first took a Marta bus to this Little Five Points legend yet-to-be, the train system was not built. Wax N Facts was half its current size, but co-owners Danny and Harry were there, as they remain today. I purchased my first copy of the Hampton Greese Band masterpiece, Music to Eat and the Fans deput 7” single. These days Wax N Facts continues to stock what made that first trip worth taking: plenty of used vinyl, independent LPs and singles. And the prices cannot be beat. Somewhere along the way they started stocking those newfangled CDs, and despite all the complaining noises I have made over the years, they continue to stock the damned annoying things.

Criminal Records (1154-A Euclid Avenue) recently made their third relocation within the two-block Little Five Points business district, and it was a very smart move. The new expanded locations allows for the best selection of new vinyl in Atlanta. Criminal also stocks used vinyl, CDs, DVDs, an amazing selection of comics, graphic novels and magazines, hard to find elsewhere in Atlanta. This is the first place I go to look for the latest obscure independent release I read about somewhere. Criminal has a large, helpful staff, and these people know what they are talking about. Saturdays they have in-store live bands. Check the website for details, and sign up for both their excellent newsletters.

Full Moon Records (1653 McClendon Avenue) is the third great L5P record emporium, out of spitting range of the heart of the neighborhood, and a short hike up McClendon. Historically McClendon was not one of the five points of this hillbilly-hip shopping district. Short story long: developers and the city of Atlanta joined forces and lobed off the shortest of the original five intersecting points: Seminole Avenue. By default, McClendon became the fifth point, and the strip of beautiful old storefronts where Full Moon is located has become a sort of sub-division of LFPs. Full Moon is small with annoyingly limited hours, but no Atlanta store has a smarter selection of used and new vinyl than this cramped room of treasures. The tight, limited selection of jazz and blues is excellent.

Ella Guru (B-101 Elizabeth) is another small shop in the vicinity of L5Ps, in the opposite direction from Full Moon, in an area once thought the armpit of the neighborhood. Case in point, I lived in a 50-year-old school bus illegally parked 10 feet from the current Ella Guru locale, next to a field of kudzu. These days the kudzu is striped away and replaced by enough gentrification to frighten off the most hardened urban pioneer. My one trip to this tiny CD store, I purchased the new John “Drumbo” French CD: City of Refuge, which is appropriate considering this is one of two Atlanta retail record outlets with a Captain Beefheart-derived name. The selection of vinyl is shabby -- a few half empty boxes that might be impressive found at a garage sale, but there are plenty of used and new CDs

Low Yo Yo Stuff Records (3854 North Peachtree Road) relocated a couple of years ago from their tiny Athens hole within a hole-in-the-wall to this new more spacious locale. Todd and company specialize in collectible used vinyl you cannot find elsewhere. This place is worth the Herculean effort required to drive out to Low Yo Yo Stuff on the two days they are actually opened. Unfortunately this reporter works weekends, and I have not been here since the Atlanta move. I can report one reliable source says they have the best selection in Atlanta, and I believe him. The prices are not cheap, but these are the records you never find at other stores: long unavailable punk and no-wave and experimental jazz and rock.

Wuxtry (2096 N. Decatur Road) is another great, old Atlanta record store. If Wax n Facts is record grandpa, Wuxtry is record granny. Mark stocks an extraordinary vinyl selection of used jazz, country, soul, soundtracks, and just about everything else. Sometimes the prices are not rock bottom, but sometimes that can be a good thing. Stores with the lowest prices tend toward a selection of the lowest common denominator crap. Finding the good stuff requires constant vigilance. Wuxtry prices tend to be below market, but high enough to retain an above average selection of good records, and some amazing high-end collectibles displayed with tantalizing flare along the walls. And yes they do have some of those silly, soon to be extinct, CDs.

Decatur CD (356 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue) is mostly about CDs, as its name loudly states, and they probably have the best selection of CDs in the city. Warren is able to order most out-of-stock items overnight. When I stop in on other business and despite my efforts not to buy anything, I always come away with a half dozen CDs, I have been unable to find anywhere else. And for the still sound-of-mind collectors of actual records, there is a good selection of new vinyl long-players. As a sign out front announces (and confuses many), Decatur CD has a partnership with A Cappella Books. Inside, accompanying the records and CDs, is a selection of music related books and some non-musical bestsellers and books of local interest. All cards on the table: I am one of the managers of A Cappella Books, and partially responsible for the book selection at Decatur CD. Obviously, I believe it is an excellent selection, including books on punk, jazz, sixties rock, and a foot-long pile of books about Bob Dylan.

The Book Nook (3073 N Druid Hills Road) has been open as long (or longer) than Wuxtry or Wax N Facts, but first and foremost this is a rather mediocre bookstore containing an above average record store. As such there is no other store in Atlanta that compares to the Book Nook. The bookstore tends toward the lowest common denominator formula described above, but the record store maintains a decent selection of used vinyl, and has excellent prices. Record overlord, David T. holds court and rules his corner of the room with an iron fist, but he knows more about rock music than just about anyone in Atlanta. His record store reflects his personality for better or worse, and despite all I believe it is for the better. The Book Nook also has an excellent selection of music books and magazines.

Kudzu (2974 E. Ponce de Leon) is one of many antique markets scattered about suburban Atlanta. Most of these have booths that specialize in vinyl records. Kudzu is far and above the best. Last time I made the drive, they had at least four large booths with record troves. One booth in particular maintains a better, smarter selection than many independent retail record stores. Combined the Kudzu record sellers amount to one of Atlanta’s better record rooms.

Fantasyland (2839 Peachtree) has a reputation among record enthusiasts for being overpriced and not worth the drive to Buckhead. When I find the time (and money) to spend an hour or two at this Atlanta landmark, I am never dissatisfied. The selection of big band, swing, classic jazz, rock oldies, and old style torch singers is unbeatable. Sometimes because Fantasyland is off the well-worn collectors’ track and because it is pricey, there are amazing records hidden amongst the dusty stacks that would not last two minutes in the new arrival bins of Wuxtry or Wax N Facts. In addition to vinyl, Fantasyland has a scattershot selection of used music magazines and soft-core girlie rags. I have found long sought after issues of Forced Exposure and Trouser Press amongst the dross. The most remarkable thing about this ancient record outlet is that it is still open after gods know how many decades. To those same gods, I pray these forefathers of record geeks stay in the business another decade or six.

THE BUSINESS OF BOOKS

The party line in the book business is doom. The business of books is past expiration date, on life support, you pick your cliché. The arguments for this unpleasant scenario are many and sound. It certainly makes sense that in the age of google and myspace and the I-phone, a thing as seemingly antiquated as a book would not be the first thing most folks would turn to in their search for entertainment and information. From my lofty position as the used book manager at A Cappella Books in Little Five Points, I get mixed signals. When our store opened almost 20 years ago, the neighborhood seemed to be a thriving center for independent bookstores. The corridor between LFP and Virginia-Highland was scattered with an impressive selection of stores: Charis Books, McGuires, the Science-Fiction & Mystery Bookstore, the Small Press Bookstore, and Atlanta Book Exchange. All but two of those stores moved or closed within a year of A Cappella Books opening. And yet, those two -- Charis and Atlanta Book Exchange -- remain in business today. Nobody is getting rich selling books. In fact, books considered collectibles and selling at prices starting at $45 and climbing just a decade ago, are selling these days literally for pennies. Even if there are relatively few copies of a book available, websites such as Abebooks.com and Amazon.com allow customers to view pretty much all the available copies simultaneously. That old trickster the law of supply and demand goes to work, and the prices hit the basement floor. Most used books are literally not worth the paper they are printed on. In many cases those trying to sell their books might want to sell them by the pound to a recycling center. I hear a chorus of angry noises from you three book lovers, and I sincerely hope you do get angry. There are book warehouses selling cheap copies of almost every well-known (many much less well-known) book of the last 100 years at literally one cent per book. They add a shipping fee of $3 to $5 and end up making a few cents after labor and materials. This is not the book business, we at A Cappella want to be in. Nor do we have the staff or space such operations require, obviously. We end up scrapping around the edges, finding new ways to maintain our integrity and pick up a dime of profit. We are still buying and selling used books, but our standards and selection are in a constant flux. More often than not we have come to rely upon a thoughtful selection of new books, and recently author appearances have become our bread and butter. Who knows what we will be doing next year to keep “the smartest bookstore in Atlanta” open and still smart. I believe there will be a next year for our bookstore, but ten years is more than ever much in doubt.

2009-02-05T02:31:00.000-08:00

Barton Gellman: Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency (Penguin) These days Dick Cheney haters appear happy to move forward along with our handsome new commander in chief, blocking from collective memories the torturous Cheney/Bush administration. Not to throw out trite remarks about history and repetition, but Cheney and his presidential sidekick might be out of office, but the damage they inflicted upon this country and the planet remain, regardless of what history thinks about all of this. Barton Gellman is an old school journalist who does not put opinion before his story. Such an approach does not best serve all stories. In the instance of telling the behind the scenes tale of the Cheney vice-presidency, Gellman’s technique is perfect. And his story is riveting. There is one man who surely does not give a shit what history has to say about Cheney. That would be Dick Cheney himself. Not known for his sense of humor, Cheney had me guffawing when he responded to ABC reporter Matha Raddatz’s lengthy question regarding how the American public had turned against the war in Iraq with one word, “his eyes locked on Raddatz”, he said: “So.” There is nothing about Cheney’s policy prerogatives that I do not find repugnant, but at times it is difficult not to admire this relentless Machiavellian tactician. Cheney’s ties to Halliburton are normally amongst the first weapon employed by the VP’s detractors. Yet, there is not much evidence of graft in the pages of Angler. On the other hand, there is much evidence of Cheney’s efforts to remake the U.S. executive into a monarchy. Once his king was firmly entrenched, Cheney used the power of the office and his power as un-elected co-president to fight his global war on terror using any means necessary, including deceit, secrecy, torture and blitzkrieg. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who cares about this country, where its been and where it is going.

2009-01-08T02:25:00.000-08:00

Dave Eggers: What is the What (2006); Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006) Two of the better novels I read in 2008 are two of the best books of 2006. So much for the value of my end-of-the-year lists. What is the What is self-described as a novel. Yet it is not a work of fiction. In fact, it is the true-to-life story of a man named Valentino Achak Deng as interpreted by Dave Eggers. The book includes a preface by Mr. Deng explaining the logic for calling the book a novel. If What is the What is a novel, it is journalistic fiction in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Unlike Capote’s difficult to love protagonist, Egger’s narrator/interviewee is not a perpetrator but a victim, an innocent and brave boy who grows into a remarkably honest and true, still somehow innocent man. He had this reader’s complete attention and love by page two. Achak is one of “the lost boys of Sudan”, a group of young refugees of the Sudanese civil war that started in the 1980s. He was one of thousands of boys forced to abandon their villages and seek safety in Ethiopia and later Kenya, in the middle of a terrible, genocidal war. Achak was about eight when he is first caught up in this maelstrom of violence, the cause of which he knew nothing. The reader enters Achak’s story near its end. The boy has grown up in refugee camps. As a young man he finally makes it to the comparative security of the United States and an apartment in Atlanta. Yet, the man is again faced with a violent attack, he cannot understand. Eggers and Deng use this later incident to take the reader back into the earlier events, and throughout the narrative the two stories are woven together with great effect. The Road, as its name suggests is another tale of a journey. Likewise, it is the story of violence, war and an innocent boy trying to find a safe haven in a world turned upside down. Unlike Eggers’ book, let us hope The Road is fiction, through and through, because seldom has any author told a more miserable story of a world without hope. McCarthy has always been a downbeat stylist, but with this recent work he achieves new lows. Detractors have described The Road as a break with his earlier work, as a work stripped of the dark beauty of Blood Meridian. But most readers seem to agree, The Road is one of Cormac McCarthy’s great works. This stark, relentless tale is amongst the author’s best.

2008-12-28T03:55:00.000-08:00

PBK – PBK (aka Phillip B. Klinger) is a tireless, long-suffering ambient/noise musician of Flint, Michigan. Beginning in or around the mid-80s and continuing to this day he has performed and recorded his at times lovely, other times terrifying brand name music. Anyone interested in the DIY cassette network of the 1980s or the noisy musics of today, should check out Klinger’s blog at http://soundgenetic.blogspot.com/. Obviously there are thousands of locations along the web roadways for information of this sort, but I believe this stop to be a worthwhile source for choice bits of information and history, beautiful photos of rare cassette cover art, links to downloads of previously difficult to find sounds, and much more.

2008-12-20T01:54:00.000-08:00

Performing Ferrets: No One Told Us (Hyped2death/Messthetics CD) This CD is a collection of songs by a heretofore-unknown band from the 1978 to ’82 era. The folks at Hyped2death call this short span of years the DIY era. Whatever you want to call this musical era, whether it is indeed anything as profound as “an era”, this was a time when an amazing bunch of secretly talented young (non) musicians performed and recorded an extraordinary rich variety of music. This music continues to trickle back to us on-line and on official compilations. Most of these bands were unable to grip their personal muses long enough to put together a longplayer’s worth of material. And many of these bands can be found on the 2-dozen (plus) CD compilations available from the Hyped2death label. Performing Ferrets is/was one of the exceptions. This newly collected CD includes material from their long lost L.P of 1981 along with an E.P., a self released cassette and previously unreleased demos. This music, retrieved from the vault of history, amounts to a brilliant new release, enough for a vinyl L.P. (If any labels are listening, you could do, no doubt have done, much worse.) The Ferrets are comparable to such U.K. contemporaries as the Mekons (circa their debut Quality of Mercy), early Fall, and pre-L.P. Gang of Four. On this side of the ocean Performing Ferrets had (no doubt unknown) musical brothers within the New York sub-No Wave set. The P. Ferrets bring to mind the brilliant tin-can clatter of Blinding Heahache, Mofungo & Information as heard on their cassette compilation Tape #1. Since I discovered this terrific compact disc, the Ferrets have been pretty much all I want to hear.

2008-12-11T01:07:00.000-08:00

I knew I would want to make adjustments to my 2008 “best of” lists before long, but I would not have guessed I would need so many changes so quickly to my music choices. Nevertheless only days later and Cat Power’s new Dark End of the Street (Matador 210”) a collection of covers including “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” & “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” immediately found its way near the top of my list. The Mojo top-50 list influenced me to consider records by The Last Shadow Puppets and Fucked Up. Age of the Understatement (Domino LP) by the former is too beautiful to ignore. The latter’s Chemistry of Common Life (Matador LP) is too deliciously ugly not to love. And I don’t know how I managed to ignore the Nixe 1980-81 Recordings by the First Dutch All-Girl Punk Band (Polly Maggoo 2-LP) in my selection of golden oldie re-issues of 2008. I fell for this one months ago, but somehow allowed it to slip to the back of my pile. It is back on top now and highly recommended.

2008-12-07T04:36:00.000-08:00

BEST BOOKS 2008

1. Alexander Theroux: Laura Warholic or, the Sexual Intellectual (Fantagraphics)
2. Nicholson Baker: Human Smoke (Simon & Schuster)
3. David Lodge: Deaf Sentence (Viking)
4. Cynthia Ozick: dictation (Houghton Mifflin)
5. David Benioff: City of Thieves (Viking)
6. David Barber: A Hard Rain Fell: SDS & Why It Failed (University of Mississippi)
7. Peter Doggett: There’s A Riot Going On (Canongate)
8. Paul Auster: Man In the Dark (Henry Holt)
9. Mary Jo Salter: A Phone Call to the Future: New & Selected Poems (Knopf)
10. Thurston Moore & Byron Coley: No Wave (Abrams Image)
11. Stephane Dunn: Bad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films (University of Illinois Press)
12. Lydia Lunch: The Gun Is Loaded (Black Dog Publishing)
13. Brian K. Vaughan; Georges Jeanty; Joss Whedon: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season Eight #2): No Future For You (Dark Horse)
14. Dave Zirin: A People’s History of Sports in the United States (New Press)
15. Tana French: The Likeness (Viking)
16. Todd Oldham & Cindy Sherman: Place Space #3: John Waters (Ammo)
17. Vijay Prashad: The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (New Press)
18. Tom Hayden: Writing for A Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden Reader (City Lights)
19. Graham Vickers: Chasing Lolita: How Popular Culture Corrupted Nabokov’s Little Girl All Over Again (Chicago Review Press)
20. Marc Masters: No Wave (Black Dog Publishing)
21. Roberto Bolano: Nazi Literature In the Americas (New Directions)
22. Martin Amis: The Second Plane: September 11: Terror and Boredom (Knopf)
23. David Lebedoff: The Same Man: George Orwell & Evelyn Waugh (Random House)
24. David Sheppard: On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno (Orion)
25. George Pelecanos: The Turnaround (Little, Brown)

Unlike the music list(s) posted earlier, I have not bothered to separate apples & bananas amongst my book choices. And like my music lists, these book choices will doubtless change as I continue to read the dozens (if not hundreds) of 2008 books I plan to read in the future. At the risk of offending my two readers with blatant commercialism, I would like to point out that these books are available through A Cappella Books. If we do not currently stock them, we can order them.

2008-12-06T01:10:00.000-08:00

BEST OF 2008 LPs & CDs

1. Portishead: 3 (Mercury LP)
2. The Kills: Midnight Bloom (Domino LP)
3. Tricky: Knowle West Boy (Domino LP)
4. Mercury Rev: Snowflake Midnight/Strange Attractor (Yep Roc 2-LP)
5. Brian Jonestown Massacre: My Bloody Underground (a Records LP)
6. Juana Molina: Un Dia (Domino CD)
7. The Bug: London Zoo (Ninja Tune CD)
8. Cold War Kids: Loyalty to Loyalty (2-10”)
9. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Dig Lazarus Dig (Anti LP)
10. King Khan and the Shrines: The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines (Vice LP)
11. Indian Jewelry: We Are the Wild Beast (Tigerbeat6 CD)
12. Don Cavalli: Cry Land (Everloving A Rag CD)
13. Dandy Warhols: Earth to the Dandy Warhols (Beat the World 2-LP)
14. Gnarls Barkley: The Odd Couple (Warner LP)
15. Mudhoney: The Lucky Ones (SubPop LP)
16. Pit Er Pat: High Time (Thrill Jokey LP)
17. Deerhunter: Microcastle (Kranky LP)
18. Pram: The Moving Frontier (Domino LP)
19. Erykah Badu: New Amerykah Part One (Mowtown CD)
20. Sonic Youth; I.C.P.; the Ex: In the Fishtank (Konkurrent LP)
21. A Place to Bury Strangers: A Place to Bury Strangers (CD)
22. Ratatat: LP3 (XL LP)
23. Gang Gang Dance: Saint Dymphna (The Social Registry LP)
24. Pontiak: Sun On Sun (Thrill Jockey LP)
25. Richard Pinhas & Merzbow: Keio Lane (CD)
26. Atlas Sound: Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (Kranky LP)
27. David Byrne & Brian Eno: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today(CD)
28. Deerhoof: Offend Maggie (LP)
29. Earth: The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (Southern Lords 2-LP)
30. Matmos: Supreme Balloon (Matador LP)

Re-issues*

1. DNA: DNA On DNA (No More Records LP)
2. David Bowie: Live in Santa Monica ‘72 (Virgin 2-LP)
3. Neil Young: Sugar Mountain: Live At Canterbury House 1968 (CD)
4. Sir Victor Uwaifo: Guitar-Boy Superstar 1970 – 76 (Sound Way 2-LP)
5. Scritti Politti: Early (limited edition) (Rough Trade LP)
6. MC5: Live At the Grande Ballroom 1968 (Get Back LP)
8. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: It comes to you in a plain brown wrapper (Sundazed LP)
10. Led Zepplin: Dazed & Confused (The 1969 BBC Sessions) (Atlantic LP)
11. The Clash: Live At Shea Stadium (LP)
12. Suicide: Live 1977 – 1978 (CD Boxed Set)

1. Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic, Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970’s Nigeria: Various Artists (Sound Way 2-LP)
2. Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump: Original Heavyweight Afrobeat, Highlife & Afro-Funk: Various Artists (Strut 2-LP)
3. An England Story: Volume One: Various Artists (Soul Jazz 2-LP)
4. An England Story: Volume Two: Various Artists (Soul Jazz 2-LP)
5. New Orleans Funk: New Orleans: The Original Sound of Funk: Volume 2: Various Artists (Soul Jazz 2-LP)
6. Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted – Baghdad, 1925 – 1929: Various Artists (Honest Johns 2-LP)
7. Living Is Hard: West African Music In Britain, 1927 – 1929: Various Artists (Honest John 2-LP)
8. Nigeria Special: Part 2: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues: 1970 – 76: Various Artists (Sound Way 2-LP)
9. Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of the Underground Lagos Dancefloor: 1974 – 79: Various Artists (Sound Way 2-LP)
10. Don't Stop Recording Tap: Various Artists (Nb 3-LP & CD)

* The term, “re-issues” is inappropriate for a couple of reasons. (a) The records included are not (in fact) reissues. (b) Actual reissues -- Jandek’s “Ready for the House” or many amazing Bjork releases on vinyl -- have all been excluded. I use the term “re-issue” to describe 2008 releases that belong to an earlier period. The category includes live recordings, collections and compilations of vintage material. I have left out such records as “Ready for the House” and “Post” because they are on my “best of” 1978 and 1995 lists, respectively. (Good luck finding that post!) All these “re-issues” are actually new issues, yet the material is old. I have also decided (somewhat arbitrarily) to bunch my “re-issues” into 2 groups of records. As much as I enjoy comparing apples to bananas, comparing various artist collections to single artist works inevitably results in a list that is in no logical order. Logical or not, these lists are in order of preference, but (my) preferences change day to day, if not hour to hour. Therefore, my "best of" list will doubtless change immediately after I click upon the save button. (And just in case there is someone insane enough to search, I was kidding above about posts of ancient G.T. "best of" lists. I might someday post my favorites of 1965, etc., but it has not happened yet, to my knowledge.)

2008-09-13T01:39:00.000-07:00

Various Artists: The Roxy London WC2 (Jan – Apr 77) (Harvest LP). This classic reissue is hardly a stellar live record, but it is a piece of history well worth owning. Unlike various other re-issues (i.e. a 1991 version on Receiver) this is a track for track reproduction of the original, “seminal” 1977 version – at the time little more than a dressed up promotional package for the club. Thirty years later, it is a record that is synonymous with the very notion of UK punk. The sound quality is shit, and there is as much crowd hubbub as music. But who in their right mind does not need live tracks by arguably the three best UK punk bands of all time: Wire, the Buzzcocks and X-Ray Spex recorded at their brilliant, best moment? Least we not forget there are tracks by the Adverts, the Unwanted and Eater, three bands that were perhaps not great, but certainly played great music that I love as much now as I did at age 18/19 when I first purchased singles by all these bands. I did not love joke-punker Johnny Moped or Slaughter and the Dogs. The later seemed little more than faux-Mott/Dolls at a time (1977/78) when there was an avalanche of guitar noise collapsing upon the once safe, sound music industry. I believed a revolution was at hand (the second in 2 decades from my perspective), and I had little patience for those who were not part of my personal solution. Though I understood them to be musically 2nd rate next to Wire or the Buzzcocks, Eater epitomized militant punk revolutionary correctness. Their “Thinking of the USA”/”Space Dreaming”/”Michael’s Monetary System” 7’ E.P. was The Velvet Underground & Nico contracted into a six minute burst format. Included on The Roxy London are two of their anti-anthems: “15” and “Don’t Need It” which likewise suggest what they represented for their brief time at storm’s center.

2008-07-20T03:08:00.000-07:00

The Wine Trials: A Fearless Critic Book: Robin Goldstein (Fearless Critic Media). Snobs (wine or otherwise) will hate this book. The rest of you will be happy to read it is ok to drink “Two Buck Chuck” from Trader Joe’s, not to mention the other “expensive” $10 wines reviewed herein. There is much to savor and learn about wines in the $2 to $15 range. The editors served a variety of wine to 507 wine tasters from various walks of life. Precautions were taken to ensure the anonymous equality of all wines. Swill from jugs or screw-top bottles was poured into slender, corked containers and all wines were served in the street drinker’s favorite basic brown paper bag. The results clearly suggest the cheap stuff is as good, often better than the high-end snob favorites. This is recommended to wine drinkers who do not take their drinking too seriously and anyone who wants to learn more about wine. – Glen Thrasher

2008-06-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

David Lodge: Deaf Sentence. David Lodge is one of the last of the great comic-realist novelist of the 1950’s, a younger member of the supposedly angry generation that included Iris Murdoch and Kingsley Amis. He is counted as one of the inventors of the “campus novel,” and as years passed and the novelist aged, Lodge seldom strays far from the university. This latest mild masterwork is no exception. Lodge peaks behind the curtain of familiar contemporary living in a near perfect blend of sorrow and mirth. His storytelling is absurdly simple and good.

2008-03-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

Inner City Sound: Punk and Post-Punk in Australia, 1976 – 1985 (Verse Chorus Press, 2005): Clinton Walker. Arguably the most important “punk scene,” to emerge after N.Y.C. and London, was the scene that emerged from down under Australia way. Of course, qualitatively, it is some pretty funky math that arrives on an answer wherein country (continent, even) equals city. The Australian scene such as it was does not look so hot once we take into consideration: the Birthday Party were from Melbourne; the Scientists from Perth; the Saints from Brisbane; and Radio Birdman from Sydney. Crime and the City Solution also came out of Sydney but those clever gents bucked the southern hemisphere first chance they got and settled into a life in London, much as the Bad Seeds would later settle upon Berlin. Nevertheless, all these brilliant and fierce rock bands found their sound in Australia, and the best print source of information I know about is this handsome collection of articles, photos, discographies and reprinted interviews from the vintage Aussie fanzine called Pulp. In addition to the beloved bands already mentioned there are features on the Boys Next Door (proto-Birthday Party), the Laughing Clowns, the Go Betweens, Hunters and Collectors, the Triffids and information on dozens of other bands that might otherwise be forgotten. This is one of only a few music books I recommend without hesitation.

2008-01-17T02:20:00.000-08:00

Noise/Music: A History: Paul Hegarty (Continuum Books, 2007) This new book is important, if for no other reason than it is unique and long overdue. To my knowledge, no other writer has published at this length on this essential, 50 plus year old anti-musical “genre.” Considering how influential much of what Hegarty discusses has been upon the mainstream of popular music this failure borders on criminal. And considering the weight resting upon Hegarty’s scholarly shoulders, he bears well the responsibility. Unfortunately, the fact this book is so desperately needed is likewise what dooms it to at least partial failure.

Noise/Music: A History reads like the graduate thesis I dreamed of writing but in my day would not have dared to propose. Hegarty obviously loves having a reason to include the Germs and Throbbing Gristle on the same pages as Adorno, Baudrillard, Deleuze and other fashionable names of 20th century theory. Not that it is a stretch to include these difficult ideas in conjunction with this difficult music. The match was meant to be. The problem with this book is a matter of exclusion not inclusion. It would be easy to name dozens perhaps a hundred bands and/or musicians whose music should have been discussed in a book such as this one. Yet these bands are not to be found. Obviously such a book would run to thousands of pages, and obviously there should be a bunch of books on this stuff by the year 2008.

Hegarty does manage to mention if only in passing most of the important bands associated with “noise,” and considering that the one group given an entire chapter is Merzbow, no one can accuse the author of being soft on noise. I could complain (and I suppose I am) that Hegarty gives an equal amount of attention to a live track by the rock band Cream that he gives to Einsturzende Neubauten, perhaps the most important “noise” band in history. Likewise he mentions the Velvet Underground only in passing, and they were the rock band that embodied “noise” as a genre years before any other “popular” band dreamed such notions. Hegarty seems to compare“Sister Ray” to the hapless, in his words “pointless,” “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen. Such a comparison would be a good one, if it did not appear to be derision. Nevertheless, Hegarty gives needed attention and space to both the Swans and White House, two bands that are not easy to love. His sources include such essential reading as Derek Bailey and Jacques Attali. Noise/Music: A History is thrilling much more often than it goes wrong. Anyone who cares about “free improvisation” or “no wave” or “concrete music” or “extreme electronics” or any of the other silly genre terms that are thrown at this loud and delicious music will certainly want to read this book.

2007-12-25T23:50:00.000-08:00

The Darkest Evening of the Year: Dean Koontz (Bantam) I just finished the latest of Dean Koontz’s many awful novels and believe I am beginning to uncover at least a morsel of their irresistible attraction. It has been obvious for some time that I share many of the same notions and ideology as the typical Koontz villain. Despite the fact, I almost never indiscriminately or otherwise shot people with silencer-fitted automatic weapons. Nor does the concept of killing fill me with satisfaction. Nevertheless, I do share the Koontz bad guys’ basic mistrust of humankind. It is debatable if this mistrust should be defined as misanthropy. Yet, much like the villainess in The Darkest Evening of the Year who enjoys torturing her own child and burning the homes of strangers after sex, I look forward to reading The World Without Us.

Koontz often warns his readers about the fiction of other writers. Usually these unnamed prose stylists are described vaguely for their dark humor and ironic stories of human folly and the meaninglessness of life. Great stuff, obviously. And unnamed until now. Several hundred pages into his latest masterpiece, Koontz reveals that his latest killer/drug dealer/literary enthusiast -- an amiable fellow named Billy Pilgrim -- has read Finnegans Wake three times. Billy also enjoys Kafka and Wallace Stevens, though it is unclear if these are the favorite authors he often mentions. Of course, despite ruthlessness and training, Billy is no match for the golden retriever-loving protagonists at the center of Koontz’s story. The heroic couple has love and hope and a shared belief in the power of goodness on their sappy, soapy, cliché-ridden side.

It is very easy to belittle Koontz, but despite his microwave ready plots and cornball dialogue, he continues to sell many thousands of books. The list of 51 titles inside his latest does not include the dozen or so science fiction novels Koontz published prior to his commercial breakthrough with Demon Seed. Unlike most of his fans, and I must count myself as a fan, I read his books because they do not speak to me. I have long recognized Koontz is some variety of conservative, if not a full-blown neocon, but I am just beginning to understand that my opposition to Koontz is profound. I will no doubt continue to read Dean Koontz and dislike his every moment at least until I can fully understand the complexity of our duality.

2007-12-23T02:57:00.000-08:00

Clockcleaner: Babylon Rules (LP/CD) For a number of years and years ago, I was on the promotional mailing rolls of a large number of record companies. This was the tail end of the era when record companies only produced actual records. During those distant marijuana-clouded times, hardly a business day would pass when I did not receive a long-player or three in the mail. Therefore, I was much more qualified to compile my annual end-of-the-year record lists. These days I buy all my CDs and LPs. Regardless of the number of records I am able to get my hands upon, I will no doubt always compile these stupid “best of” lists. And in my mind, I continue to add to and rearrange my lists as I uncover new music and re-evaluate the old stuff. This year, re-evaluation has already begun and the year is not even done. No doubt I should have waited until January to post my ten. After listening to this one non-stop for a week, I believe I would plug the new record by this (new to me) band somewhere around the #6 position. Babylon Rules appears to be Clockcleaner’s third release and first full-length record. I have not heard the band’s previous efforts. The new one is a loud and relentless container full of noise, if not exactly a musical breakthrough. Much like so many of the new bands these guys (and a gal) are all about the old sounds, which does not bother this old fart. The sound of nothing happening was good enough for John Cale all those years ago, and it is still more than good enough for me. It does make me laugh to hear this stuff called “new” in any context other than that it was recently released. This very week, I was standing in line at my favorite coffee house. One of the young hipsters working behind the counter noticed I was holding CDs by Clockcleaner and another new generation punk/noise outfit called Om. My young friend made some comment about how I was “keeping up with the kids.” I should have said the kids were, in fact, keeping up with me. At least these annoying "kids" are keeping up with the sort of sounds I was listening to when I was an annoying 20-something artbrat. Though reputedly from Philadelphia, Clockcleaner builds upon the sound of such Australian -- Detroit-drenched -- outfits as Grong Grong and Scientists. The repetitious drone is a beautiful thing to these old ears, and fuck what the kids are doing. We love repetition. We love repetition. We love repetition.

2007-12-12T03:08:00.000-08:00

A few thoughts.
After Dan Berger re-ignited my interest in ‘60s era radical politics with his excellent Weather Underground book and inspiring appearance at A Cappella Books, I have inadvertently positioned myself as something of an expert on the topic of anti-American activities of the late sixties and early seventies. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. I am the definition of the novice student of radical sixties culture. I know the soundtrack of the period very well, but when it comes to more substantive matters, I am a passionate beginner, a very late beginner to be sure, but a beginner. Do not get me wrong. I have always wanted to change this fetid government of ours, but I was not clear on the history of the subject, until quite recently. Over the course of the last two years I have been catching up and reading everything I can get my hands on. Perhaps my status as a new comer to this material makes my opinion worth hearing. My eyes are nothing if not fresh. For whatever it is worth, I will continue to give my four cents worth in these non-pages. Anyone who cares to hear what I have to say is very welcomed, indeed.

Several friends have recently asked what I considered to be a definitive overview of the Black Panther Party, a book that does for the Panthers what Berger’s book does so very well for Weather. Unfortunately, I am not aware of such a book. I have written at length about several beautiful art books of Panther photography and art, but that is hardly the same thing. I have mentioned in passing several excellent anthologies on the subject of the Panthers. These include Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party, (Routledge Press, 2001), edited by Kathleen Cleaver and George Katsiaficas and The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered), (Black Classics Press, 2005), edited by Charles E. Jones. Both titles are excellent collections of essays by dozens of scholars and ex-panthers. There are two similar collections I have not previously mentioned: In Search of the Black Panther Party, (Duke University Press, 2006), edited by Jama Lazerow and Yohuru Williams, and, just published, Comrades: A Local History of the Black Panther Party, (Indiana University Press, 2007), edited by Judson L. Jeffries. These are likewise recommended, though hardly definitive.

There are a number of interesting memoirs written by ex-Panthers. Perhaps the most intriguing of these is Elaine Brown’s A Taste of Power (Anchor Books, 1994). Three lesser known works I would also recommend are: We Want Freedom (South End Press, 2004) by Mumia Abu-Jamal, A Panther Is a Black Cat (Black Classics Press, 2007) by Reginald Major and Will You Die With Me? (Washington Square Press, 2006) written by Flores Alexander Forbes.

Two recent mixed media releases offer some things that books cannot give. The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service: 1967 – 1980) (Atria Books, 2007), edited by David Hilliard, includes a DVD with some interesting footage and interviews with Hilliard, one of the few surviving Panther founding fathers. On the other hand, the accompanying music-video style footage did not do much for this viewer/reader.

What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party Library (AK Press DVD), is a floodgate of Panther related information and footage. I have only begun to swim through this material and it is a fun, eye-opening adventure I recommend to all interested parties.

I am still searching for that definitive book on this topic, but in the meantime I will enjoy this new DVD and continue to find much worth finding in the many books already written on the important, vanguard political party called the Black Panther Party.

2007-12-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

I’m Not There: Todd Haynes (director). This smart, fun new movie by oddball director Haynes is one of the most enjoyable films I have seen in a while. The all but unprecedented genre of celebrity fantasy bio-picture makes this a delightfully difficult movie to classify. Perhaps Haynes’ own unseen Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story would be the place to start. I cannot help there. So let’s begin in the obvious place: Haynes choice of actors to portray his protagonist(s). This is the gimmick promoters are using to sell the picture, and it is no doubt the handle critics will seize to size up this remarkable movie. So why should this critic be any different?

Haynes employs not one actor, but six to play his Dylan figure. The fact that Dylan’s name is not used should indicate just how iconographic the idea of Dylan has become. It also might indicate that Haynes (or his financers?) is gun shy after his experience with Karen Carpenter.What we have are six actors in search of a character. Christian Bale plays a duel role, Jack Rollins, the folk singer and the disturbingly on-target Pastor John, a creepy, born-again former rocker. Cate Blanchett is as-always brilliant playing the self-possessed rock star, Jude Quinn. Heath Ledger, an actor I heretofore would have dismissed, is very effective as Robbie Clark, the actor. Ben Whishaw plays Arthur Rimbaud, though not exactly the famous French poet of that name. A very young African-American actor named Marcus Carl Franklin plays Woody Guthrie, though not at all the famous singer/songwriter of that name. Confused? Don’t think you are alone.

Confusion was obviously the goal of Haynes' mix and match cinematic strategy. Yet by film’s end the director has woven a picture of a character that in many ways is Dylan. All these characters are a piece of the man and artist known to almost everyone as Bob Dylan. There is one striking moment when the audience is led to believe some representative of authority is about to declare that the man’s real name is “Robert Zimmerman.” Of course, in keeping with the obvious anonymity employed throughout the film, some other similar name is used. Dylan is a conman, a liar and an asshole. Or was he? The schizo-Dylan of I’m Not There is all these things and none of them.

Perhaps the two most intriguingly interwoven characterizations are Woody Guthrie and Billy the Kid. Youthful actor, Marcus Carl Franklin plays a young myth in progress. We meet Woody on a boxcar talking to two ancient hobos. Haynes cleverly reverses role expectations, showing these elderly men entranced by the stories a child has to tell. Likewise, Billy is no kid. Richard Gere re-imagines the Kris Kritofferson role from Sam Peckinpah’s classic, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. According to Jurgen Muller, discussing the Peckinpah film: “Kristofferson gave Billy the aura of a hippie idol – and with the outlaw’s demise, the film also buried the hopes and ideals of the Woodstock generation.”Haynes does not kill Billy/Gere. Instead we see our hero catching a ride on a boxcar, taking the real role of the kid, returning to the safety of youth and dreams and perhaps leading onward toward Dylan’s post-born-again era. The film does not otherwise address the last 25 or so years of Dylan’s prodigious career. And this might well be its greatest weakness, because it is Dylan’s ability to comeback (artistically) and continue to produce better than most records long past his heyday that most distinguishes Dylan from his contemporaries (Mick Jagger, Ray Davies, Van Morrison, etc.). Although in our current reunion friendly era, where nothing seems to be musically dated, and likewise, nothing much represents the now sound, Dylan is more and more looking like just one of many great oldsters who occasionally manages to eek out a new decent enough record that will be championed as a five star item in the pages of Mojo or whathaveyou.Perhaps I’m Not There is needed to remind younger viewers just how special Dylan was. Unfortunately, I am uncertain that this movie does any such thing. One hardly needs to admire and understand Dylan to watch this wickedly time-warped film. History is non-linear, if not non-existent under Haynes direction. Truth and fiction are carelessly blurred and whether novice to Dylan’s story or aficionado, viewers come out of this movie with a decidedly impressionistic image of a Dylanesque character study.

2007-12-10T05:41:00.000-08:00

The "best" music of 2007. More than ever before, my ten favorite choices are available only as CD's, but I still consider the 12" longplayer to be the quality musical format for a whole variety of reasons anyone who knows me is very sick of hearing.

At this point in history my preference for the vinyl L.P. does not signify that I am some sort of rebel, but simply that I am old. When asked their format preference, given three choices: CD, LP or MP3, two men whose opinion I value, Robert Wyatt and Thurston Moore both replied with a fourth all but forgotten musical format choice: cassette. So perhaps I am championing the wrong outmoded medium. Honestly, since I bought a new car with a very good sound system and CD player my relationship with CD's has much improved. In whatever format they are available these are the ten "albums" I have been playing most these recent months:

1. Enon: Grass Geysers… Carbon Clouds (LP/CD)
2. Grinderman (Mute CD)
3. Throbbing Gristle: Part Two: The Endless Not (CD)
4. Peter Case: Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John (CD)
5. Liars: Stumm 287 (LP/CD)
6. These Are Powers: Terrific Seasons (Hoss Records) (CD)
7. Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade (CD)
8. Z’ev & Stephen O’Malley: Magistral (CD)
9. The Bags: All Baged Up: The Collected Works 1977 – 1980 (LP)
10. ESG: A South Bronx Story 2: Collector’s Edition -- Raities (LP)

2007-11-29T00:54:00.000-08:00

American Hardcore: A Tribal History: Steven Blush (Feral House, 2001)
Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk, 1980 – 1984 (Cherry Red Books, 2004)
The Day The Country Died: A History of Anarcho Punk, 1980 – 1984 (Cherry Red Books, 2006)

The fact I spent much of the decade we call the 1980s writing about music has, no doubt, influenced my point of view, but I consider it to be one of the richest periods for “popular music” despite the fact most of the good stuff was not in fact popular. Certainly an enormous quantity of music of the so-called alternative variety was released in the 1980s. Some critics of the era no doubt do not consider this music to be remarkable. Most of the music I most loved, Sonic Youth, the Dream Syndicate, the Birthday Party, the Swans, Scientists, the Fall, the Mekons, the Tall Dwarfs, etc., is not what most of these same critics would call punk rock. Likewise, these are not the punks that Steven Blush and Ian Glasper have chosen to chronicle in these three excellent and much needed books. Nevertheless, hardcore punk bands such as Crass, Flux of Pink Indians, the Subhumans, the Dicks, Bad Brains, Negative Approach, Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, Scream, Minor Threat and hundreds more were important bands that have influenced thousands of others. This legacy needs to be chronicled and these books begin that complex and difficult task with passion.

By 1980 the supposedly smart critics thought punk rock was dead. Most days of the week, I was one of them. We must have been wrong because there was a whole bunch of stuff still being released that was called punk rock. Much of this music was dismissed by those in the know, perhaps sometimes with good reason. As usual, there was a lot of great punk music ignored by critics and loved by fans. These three books attempt to get a handle on this stuff.

It is unfortunate that three separate sub-genres are invoked in the process of describing these beloved bands. It does the music little good to put it into these boxes. There are many annoying sentences that come from the mouths of humans, but one I hate very much is a question asked by the smart aleck who comes into our bookstore and hears some unfamiliar music playing. The sentence has several variations but usually goes something like: “What do you call this stuff?” The aleck does not mean: “is it the Flying Burrito Brothers or the Fiery Furnaces?” He means: “is this punk or country or what?” Most of us cannot understand new music unless we can call it something: rock or punk or blues or what have you. I am as guilty as the rest of you dopes. Point in fact: I have already wasted time arguing what was or was not punk. We have lost the ability to describe music without placing it into a box. How else could Ian Glasper and Steven Blush write about the music they love without putting it into a box and calling the box: U.K. punk, anarcho punk and/or American hardcore? If I had the answer I would be a pretty smart guy. As it is, I am just another annoying smart aleck waving my sword at another windmill and shouting about something no one else gives two hoots about. To be fair, the sub-genres, employed by Glasper and Blush, are well established. The authors merely give them credence by writing these books on these punk rock sub-sets, and honestly I could not be more pleased. To the non-fan the groups featured in these three books, Ian Glasper calls them the 2nd wave, all sound much alike. Still these three types of punk definitely have their own sound and look.

The “first wave” punks, England’s Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Undertones, the Buzzcocks, Alternative T.V., and many more, as well as their U.S. equivalents: the Ramones, the Patti Smith Group, the Heartbreakers, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Pere Ubu, Television, etc., were bands that mostly sounded not at all alike. They were punks because the critics called them punks, not because they put on a certain outfit and adapted a certain sound. By 1980 the critics had moved on to something else, but there were still a slew of kids who wanted punk, so they created this 2nd wave, often using the most formulaic sound and style of the earlier batch. These 2nd wave kids dressed in what amounted to a uniform that quickly became the punk look. As for the sound, a little bit of the Ramones and the Pistols sound was massed together and played as fast as possible. Steven Blush points out two early punk singles as the basis for what became the hardcore sound: “Out of Vogue” by California jokers, the Middle Class and “Pay to Cum” by the very serious and talented, all African-American, Bad Brains.

For the sake of one noisy windmill that is no doubt in the minds of most readers, I will insert a few words for the “original punks” whoever the fug(s) they were. I am very aware of the fact these so called “first wavers” were by no stretch of the imagination the first punks. Both the term and sound of punk was being tossed around long before the Pistols or the Ramones were a tingle in Johnny and Joey’s respective whatever part of the anatomy you want to metaphorically mention. The Sonics, the Velvets, the Stooges, the Electric Eels, the Modern Lovers, and the list could continue to include dozens of other pre-‘76 bands that could be and/or have been called precursors to punk. That is the subject for a whole bunch of other books that have already been written or should be written.

The punks of interest here are from the period between 1980 and 1984, though most of the bands went on long after that crucial year. Some of them limp on until the present day. A few others, notably Crass and Flux of Pink Indians, existed prior to 1980.

The term “hardcore punk” is usually reserved for the American bands of the early 1980s, but it can be liberally tossed in the direction of both sets of U.K. bands, and is sometimes employed by Glasper. The proof of my point would be that bands from all three books played the same venues when they toured the States, occasionally on the same bills. I mostly saw my hardcore punks, my U.K. punks and my anarcho-punks (when I had the opportunity to see them) at Atlanta’s the Metroplex, at both its early ‘80s downtown locations. My fondest memories of the Metroplex were at its short-lived, first location, an old store front, where DRI and Scream played wonderful shows to crowds of only a dozen or two. After just a few months the Metroplex moved a few blocks up the road on the same downtown corridor to a larger, darker, cavernous building. The 2nd location lasted for years and featured many of the bands featured in all of these three books.

American Hardcore by Steven Blush is especially welcomed, though it is not a new book. Since 2001 I have spent many hours at the bookstore gazing across the floor at the wonderful cover photo of the blood soaked face and torso of Danny Spira (Wasted Youth). The picture scares the kids. They ask mom, their terror barely concealed, “is that blood real?” Moms' answer varies. My favorite was post-punk mom, half my age, telling her five-year-old and horrified young straight-laced, rightist Christian-to-be: “yes it is real.” When the inevitable, “why” followed, tattooed-Mom described Spira as: “very punk rock.” She went on to detail how the blood vessels in the mouth are close to the surface. She explained how it is easy to produce much blood pounding mouth with microphone. I have no idea whether Mom knows her anatomy or if she understands punk stagecraft. On the other hand, I have little doubt her traumatized daughter had blood soaked nightmares featuring bloody Spira-like boogieman for many months to follow.

Blush has adapted a vaguely folklorist technique, much like Legs McNeil’s classic Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, which documented the New York punk scene of the Ramones, Television, Blondie, the Dictators, etc. almost entirely with interview quotes from those who were there. Steven Blush was a part of the scene he is trying to describe. He was the manager of the brilliant underrated D.C. outfit No Trend, whose terrifying “Mass Sterilization” was in regular rotation on my own radio program of the period. He certainly deserves his two cents in this story, but unlike McNeil he voices his point of view loudly and often. At times his sneeringly subjective analysis is just what is needed. Elsewhere, it seems out of place and unnecessary such as when he is introducing John Brannon (Negative Approach, Laughing Hyenas, and (currently) Easy Action) in his chapter on the amazing Detroit punk scene. Blush finds it necessary to mention that Brannon was “characteristically dopesick during our interview for this book,” a bit of gossip that seems out of place and spiteful.

Blush seems to hold a particularly large grudge against the blip on the radar that was the “Atlanta hardcore scene.” In his chapter on the various tiny scenes that united to form “America’s Hardcore”, he goes out of his way to make fun of Atlanta, with a degree of venom he employs nowhere else in this book. First he derides the 688 Club, something I have done about a million times. Yet a mother can insult her own children. This fact does not mean the same mother can sit back and listen to some stranger use the same sort of language without getting a bit riled. The 688 Club was exactly like dozens (perhaps hundreds) of other similar establishments scattered across the American urban landscape of the period. I have been to clubs no better or worse in D.C., Philadelphia, Cleveland, Baltimore, Boston, even New York at the exact time Blush is writing about. Yet he finds it necessary to describe “gaudy new wavers in gold lame’ pants” at hardcore gigs. I don’t recall our “new wavers” (and I think I was one of them) being particularly gaudy unless he is describing my friend Lawrence Thom (of the Fans and Now Explosion). Larry T. would have delighted in gold lame’ pants and loved showing off to handsome, homophobe hardcore kids. This gaudy comment would have gone unmentioned if Blush did not proceed to dismiss Atlanta’s entire hardcore contribution: “More than a few touring outfits suffered through wretched local openers like DDT and Neon Christ.” My involvement in the hardcore scene was marginal, at best. Still it hurts me in a way that is hard to explain when Blush belittles these two fine punk bands. DDT and Neon Christ were equal to most of the hundreds of bands Blush describes with much understanding and love elsewhere in these pages. He reserves his hatred toward the Atlanta bands and almost no others. Lucky for us the scope of his book does not extend to Atlanta’s second, lesser wave: bands such as Jack the Lad and Dead Elvis. When he is not picking on Atlanta, Steven Blush does an excellent job of documenting the rich and vivid world that was hardcore circa 1980 to 1984.

During these same years, there was a comparable punk scene in the U.K. In his effort to document this scene, Ian Glasper employs a less creative approach than Blush, but his results are two enjoyable and much needed books. Glasper divides U.K. punk into two distinct genres. According to his “Disclaimer” at the start of Burning Britain, he did not start out with this concept in mind. Several bands originally interviewed for the first book were held over for The Day the Country Died after Glasper belatedly concluded that anarcho Punk was “a whole different scene.” This should have been pretty obvious to begin with. Frankly, I could do without most of the bands desribed in Burning Britain. Most of what I have heard from the likes of Vice Squad, GBH, UK Subs, Anti-Nowhere League, the Exploited and the rest is 2nd wave punk at its worst. Every cliché that is or was punk is wrapped up in the simplistic and unlikable sound of these groups. Yet, Glasper has a knack for making these assholes sound at least interesting, and I really want to go back and give them a second chance. Unfortunately, it is difficult to track down the original vinyl releases of most of these bands. Listening to Discharge on CD seems absurd. The fact that someone has seen fit to release many of the bands (from all three books) in digital format is equal parts silly and wonderful.

The Day the country Died documents a much broader and more creative array of bands. These so called anarchopunks have been gathered together according to political criteria. The fact that I share most of the political ideology of Crass and the rest, no doubt colors my perceptions – again. Politics or no politics these bands are simply a much better batch of bands. The diversity is impossible to deny. Also, quite a few of the bands that Glasper lumps into the anarchist genre appear rather dismissive of the anarchist ideology, at least from the perspective of 20-something years along. Yet, the second most ideologically hardcore of these groups and a long standing favorite of my own, Flux of Pink Indians (a.k.a. the Epileptics) are perhaps the most musically progressive punk band in history. Over the course of their 3 longplayers they journey from blistering Pistols derived hardcore (Strive to Survive) to full throttle noise comparable to the extreme electronics of Merzbow (Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks) to a fully orchestrated percussion driven postpunk (Uncarved Block). I cannot think of any band that has made a comparable development in so few years since the Beatles. The anarchopunks are a diverse and always interested array of bands: Hagar the Womb, Rudimentary Peni, Rubella Ballet, Ambix and Chumbawamba. At the solid punk center of this scene lay such bands as Conflict and the Subhumans, with early records that hold up to this day, much like their America counterparts. In both volumes Glasper groups the various bands according to the region they emerged from. This technique will mean less to American readers, than to the British, but I found it helpful getting a grasp on how the bands relate one to another.

There is much more that can be said, that should be said, that will not doubt be said about the hardcore punk music of the early 1980s, and no doubt. these three books will be followed by many others. Until that time, these three are highly recommended.

2007-11-28T23:45:00.000-08:00

I put this "ten best" list together for the "A Cappella Books Newsletter." Though 2007 is not quite done yet, and there are a few faves not included because we do not sell them at the store, I thought I would share this list with anyone (if there is anyone) who might be reading my blog. I will probably post a more complete list in January, but until then, here is this:

1. Percival Everett: The Water Cure (Graywolf Press) Everett is a revolutionary novelist. Like most of his many novels, this latest is mostly about language. The theme this time around is the language of love and loss turned to hate and murder. Perhaps finally The Water Cure is about the terrible state of this “nation of stupid fucks,” where one man’s anguish is barely audible.
2. Chris Hedges: American Fascists (Free Press) Hedges is the only writer capable of evoking a concept of faith that does not fade to ash against the background of the horrors faith has wrought in our apocalyptic era. His take on the American turn toward fascism is gripping, readable and, obviously, terrifying.
3. The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas (Rizzoli) Douglas’ artwork may be the greatest of many important contribution the Black Panther Party has left our culture. These unique, poignant drawings and paintings were originally designed for use as handbills, posters and in the pages of The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service. Yet, as pretentious as this may sound, they belong to the annals of great art, and this beautiful collection is long overdue.
4. Paul Auster: Travels In Scriptorium (Henry Holt) The mathematical genius of Paul Auster has been compared to Kafka and Borges, but in 2007 Auster reminds us of no author but Auster. The narrative sketch outlined on the jacket flap of Travels in the Scriptorium does indeed recall something that Borges might have similarly outlined, but would have never bothered completing. At the risk of oversimplification, Auster’s originality is the execution not the idea, and it is the execution that leaves us wanting more.
5. Kevin Young: For the Confederate Dead (Knopf) Kevin Young writes poetry that the ordinary reader not accustomed to reading poetry can easily enjoy, and still there is nothing easy or trite about his work. The poet laureate of rhythm ‘n’ rights lives in our midst in the city of Atlanta, but he belongs to everyone.
6. Mike Davis: Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb (Verso Hardcover) is a brisk, smart history of the asymmetrical weapon of choice. Davis ties resistance movements of the 20th century to the radical Islamic struggle of our terrifying present-day. War without end follows a road scattered with shrapnel, broken bodies and hope lost.
7. Michael Lesy: Murder City (Norton) The combination of “found” photographs from Chicago newspapers of the 1930’s with appropriately journalistic recounting of one “senseless” act after another results in a true crime masterpiece. This book demands more from its reader than fans of this genre are perhaps used to giving, but the extra effort is well worth the time.
8. Dave Zirin: Welcome to the Terrordome (Paperback original) Zirin is a cutting edge radical sports writer. His razor rhetoric is tuned perfectly for the sports hater and sports lover alike.
9. Todd Boyd: Super Fly ‘70s (Harlem Moon Paperback original) Boyd brings in focus the sexy, funny, turbulent, soul-fried vibe of a decade long due a revisionists turn. Disreputable forms of art such as Blaxploitation film, disco, and the comedy of the “chitlin circuit” are scrutinized with care. Not to steal from “the ghetto” the very art these stigmatized neighborhoods long protected. Instead Boyd remodels the African-American ghetto into a living gallery complete with laughter of thousands ironic souls, spicy smells of a million delicious meals cooking and the warm loving embraces of infinite homes built amidst oppression and hatred.
10. Jabari Asim: The N Word: who can say it, who shouldn’t, and why (Houghton Mifflin) Asim explores the language of white supremacy of our wretched history from the birth of the nation to the post-Katrina present day. Though he does not exactly answer the question (without question mark) of his subtitle, his distinctive and satisfying analysis makes this essential reading. The answer he does finally give is better than the question posed.

2007-09-28T02:29:00.000-07:00

Bruce Lawrence (editor): Messages To the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden (Verso);
Nicholas Noe (editor): Voices of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (Verso)
The events of September 11, 2001 and the inappropriate military response named “the war on terror” by our petulant American president are just the visible tip of an iceberg that represents an ideological conflict at the core of Islamic thought for hundreds of years. The majority of Western commentary on this intellectual conflict tends to resort to one of two clichés. On the left we call “terrorism” an unfortunate yet understandable response to years of thoughtless American imperialism. On the right the “terrorists” are evil-doers, who hate us because we are free. Neither response gives much thought to what this faceless other might actually have to say about these issues. In these remarkable books the shadowy other is given a voice that is articulate, sometimes poetic and very often scary as hell. Bin Laden and Nasrallah are two of the most influential intellectuals of radical Islam. This is the best opportunity for English readers to discover what an enormous piece of humanity considers to be truth. By understanding what these young, brilliant and arguably insane men are actually saying, we can perhaps inch closer to resolving a “war” that otherwise threatens to rip our planet into pieces.

If there is anyone out there looking into this blogspace, I apologize for the empty weeks. I have had some health problems, but mostly I have simply been unable to put two words together (on paper or screen), not that I have stopped reading books or listening to music or, gods forgive, watching television. Over the last several months, I have collected thoughts concerning all of the above. I hope to put some of them here in upcoming weeks.

2007-07-30T04:15:00.000-07:00

Darius James (a.k.a. Dr. Snakeskin): That’s Blaxploitation! Roots of the Baadasssss ‘Tude (Rated X by an All-Whyte Jury) (St. Martin’s, 1995) I found this book just this week, though it has been out for more than ten years. It is a perfect compliment to Todd Boyd's Super Fly 70’s, but Blaxploitation goes into much more detail about some of the issues touched upon in the more recent book. It does so with loads of attitude, not to mention some pretty sick and side-busting humor, exemplified by the twisted flip-book that dances at the bottom right corner of most recto pages. Regardless of how much fun this book is to read, Darius James knows his stuff when it comes to 70’s Black cinema. This is the best single source of printed information on this neglected movie genre I have found.

2007-06-30T03:20:00.000-07:00

Dave Zirin: Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports (Haymarket Books) Someone said Dave Zirin believes “everything is about race.” The fact is a great many issues come down to race. Obviously, the United States is built upon the backs of slavery. All these many years later, much has changed, but many, perhaps most, things remain the same for African-Americans. This truism was exposed in the aftermath of Katrina, when the poor, black, forgotten faces were seen on television by the nation and the world, abandoned, desperate and without hope, left behind in the mammoth structure called the Superdome.

It is upon this ugly symbol of the race gap that Zirin introduces his new book, Welcome to the Terrordome. Zirin re-examines the moment when, in his words, this tragedy became a farce, when the Superdome refugees were moved “not to government housing, public shelters, or even another location in the area, but to the Houston Astrodome.” Then the woman who might best symbolize white American privilege and all that is so terribly wrong with this country, Barbara Bush, showed up to give her words of wisdom on the hopeless situation. According to Barbara: “What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas.” Then the son of the witch, whom Zirin calls “Barbara’s spawn,” shows up to offer his words of wisdom and his “sympathy… for segregationist Trent Lott.” According to George the younger, out of the rubble of Trent’s house “there is going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.”

From the devastation of New Orleans, Zirin moves forward to examine a variety of issues. These are issues that define the United States in 2007. He examines them all through the lens of sports and sports celebrities. The scandal of Barry Bonds' supposed flirtation with steroids becomes a lens through which Zirin exposes the continuing presence of racism in the “sports journalism” of the present era. Zirin exposes the diminishing presence of African-Americans in baseball, and he shows how this is rooted in the basic, hopeless economics of the black ghetto. Zirin writes about sports with a passion and integrity you will not find in your average sports page or monthly sports magazine. Welcome to the Terrordome is a devastating collection of the best of his work.

2007-06-21T02:06:00.000-07:00

Todd Boyd: The Notorious Ph.D.’s Guide to The Super Fly ‘70’s(Harlem Moon Books) The study of popular Black culture of the 1970’s is a pretty great gig, as Todd Boyd suggests in his introduction to this new paperback. With an appropriate amount of hyperbole, Boyd, a.k.a. “the Notorious Ph.D.”, calls himself “a lethal combination of intellect and street knowledge, a unique ‘collabo’ between the formal and the vernacular, a Super Fly ‘70’s blaxploitation hero trapped in a professor’s body.” With some loss of points for the brevity of his study, Boyd lives up to the hype. The decade at issue seems to mean very different things to different people. To many rock music enthusiasts, the decade was long considered the nadir of the music, a dead zone of drab stadium rock, over-the-top phony stage shows and very bad hair. The decade was saved only at its very end by the emergence of the punk scene. On the strength of punk, rock pretty much limped along ever after. These same rock types often dismissed much of the music discussed by Boyd herein with the latent (sometimes blatant) racist cry of “disco sucks.” On the contrary, to many of the African-American community, the 70’s were a watershed period of rebirth and rediscover. Perhaps birth and discovery would be a better way to describe what happened to the culture during these crucial years. The end result, amongst other things was that R&B, or soul, later hip-hop, came to replace rock music as the dominate form of popular music in American culture. Throughout this same culture African-Americans came into their own, where once they were all but invisible in not just music but movies, television, comedy and sports. This book describes how this transformation happened. Boyd shows the relationship between the stalled political revolution of the 1960’s and “the Super Fly ‘70’s”. Where black power failed to bring down the empire, hip-hop culture, the rightful heir to all that this book is about, has become the mainstream of American culture, revolution from within. From the NBA to every other commercial on television to you name it, whether or not disco sucked, disco won. Get over it. Boyd divides his look at 1970’s culture into four parts. There is an introductory section called “Hot Buttered Soul” where he broadly discusses the period and its relationship to the present day. In this section Boyd also looks at some of the more important figures from the era including Issac Hayes and George Clinton. Part two, “Hell up in Hollywood” examines some of the films: Shaft (1971), Super Fly (1972), Across 110th Street (1972), The Mack (1973), The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), Cooley High (1975), and Car Wash(1976). Boyd also gives special attention to three important, sometimes overlooked, African-American celebrities: Richard Pryor, Pam Grier, and Rudy Ray Moore, and one Asian, Bruce Lee, the only non-African American included. (Quentin Tarantino also gets a nod and a wink for the love he has shown blaxploitation in his movies.) The 3rd section, “If you don’t know me by now,” examines the music of the period, including such musical masters as Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and James Brown. The final section, “Whatcha See is Watcha Get,” looks at the rise of African-Americans in television and sports, giving attention to three series: Sanford and Sons, Good Times, and Soul Train, and four groundbreaking athletes of the era: Muhammad Ali, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Hank Aaron, and Darryl Dawkins. The Notorious Ph.D.’s Guide to The Super Fly ’70’s is filled with entertaining words about all that made this period exciting and important, so it feels wrong to complain, but there could have been so much more, but what is here is great and right on, never dull and pulls not one punch.

2007-06-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

I have been reading some of the online blather about the finale episode of The Sopranos. I cannot help it. Like pretty much everyone else in this pathetic, T.V. obsessed world we are living, it is pretty much all I am thinking about. Unlike the rest of you suckers, I actually like the character, Tony Soprano, and I am hoping for his ending up king of New York. After he slaughters Phil Leotardo and decapitates his worthless regime, Paulie and Tony will rise to lead the five families as they so richly deserve. Perhaps it is a lot to hope for in the course of an hour-long episode.

One thing I read stirred me up more than the various sorry notions of how the show will end. Someone said The Sopranos is the greatest television show ever. Wrong. The greatest television show ever is The Sopranos' brother HBO series The Wire. #2 is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. #3 is the original Twilight Zone. #4 The X-Files. Fortunately for all of us, most of the rest of the history of television is so filled with dreck , I can never put together a list of the 99 best shows ever. At best I could pull out 15, maybe, and I will leave that for another day.

2007-05-27T18:49:00.000-07:00

Anthony Everitt: Augustus: the Life of Rome’s First Emperor (Random House) In the preface to his new history of the first Roman emperor, Anthony Everitt calls Augustus the founding father of western civilization. The description is difficult to dispute. Augustus gave us much that our political world is built upon and much cruelty and injustice that plague us still. He was one of the first proverbial great white European men, but great only in the old mannered historian’s definition of great. His life was enormous and changed the human world forever. In so many ways he was a repellent monster. Then again by the standards of his time he was quite the moderate. Likewise, considered by most commentators to be a man of great modesty, Augustus nevertheless named the eighth month of the year after himself. Early in his career he declared Julius Caesar a god posthumously. Caesar’s will named Augustus his heir and son. As Mark Antony points out in the recent, partially fictionalized and brilliant HBO series Rome, Augustus was, in fact, declaring himself the son of a god. During the build-up to war with the anti-Caesarian factions of Cassius and Brutus, Augustus presided over a Proscription, a political process perhaps unique to Roman politics. During such a crisis when there was a need to quickly fill the government coffers, instead of raising taxes or some other slow, inefficient method, the Romans would simply kill large numbers of the wealthiest members of the opposition party, seize all that was theirs and finance the political efforts with the spoils. This was called the Proscription. Karl Rove would approve of such a political "dirty trick." Augustus initiated one of the bloodiest Proscriptions on record in his effort along with Mark Antony to defeat the armies of Brutus and Cassius. For 40 plus years Augustus ruled a Roman empire of relative prosperity and calm. Numerous books have been published about this remarkable, complex man and his kingdom. With the possible exception of the Claudius novels of Robert Graves, none bring him to life or make him real to the 21st century reader better than Everitt’s new study.

2007-05-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Ponce de Leon: George Mitchell. (Argonne Books, 1983) It is difficult to explain how a street can represent a bit of anti-culture unique to Atlanta. How can we explain Ponce? We don’t even know how to pronounce it. Yet we Atlanta old timers know it is the definition of something strangely beautiful and lost. The old Ponce de Leon survives in the desperate stares of a few drug damaged souls one can still spot at certain cross streets early on a Sunday morning and in a few now out of place structures that have somehow survived gentrification, but the best place to go to understand what Ponce de Leon was about is this delicious photography book by George Mitchell. Ponce de Leon was self-published in 1983 and reprinted only once. The book has become a scarce item, increasingly valuable, and long sought-after by collectors and anyone interested in Atlanta history.

2007-04-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas: Sam Durant (editor) (Rizzoli) I recently used this space to note several of the better books I have read about the Black Panther Party. I gave particular attention to the recent photography collection by Stephen Shames. Since then this other, even more amazing book of Panther art has come to light. Emory Douglas was the heart of the revolutionary group first called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. His brilliant, outrageous, right-on drawings for the Black Panther newspaper spoke with more clarity than many thousands of words. He took the often difficult, vanguard ideology of Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seals and others and transformed them into startlingly direct and clear and bold images. His drawings and paintings were headshots on-target every time, a metaphor necessary and right. Douglas flawlessly captures the evils of white supremacy -- the slavery legacy leeching into the black ghettos of 20th America not the least beautiful. It is difficult to select any one or two of Emory Douglas’ pieces that best represents his greatness. There is one Black Panther: Black Community News Service cover that is particularly ferocious and true. On the September 27, 1969 issue: two of Douglas’ drooling ratmen are posed against an American flag backdrop. The ratman who is labeled “Nixon” is busy buttfucking the ratman labeled “Mitchell”. Mr. Attorney General rat has one paw against the flag for support. With his free paw he is handing an indictment of the Black Panthers “wanted dead for conspiracy of exposing America” to a very small ratman labeled “Daily.” With this superficially crude and profane drawing of the type one might expect to see on the men’s room wall, Douglas tells a complex story of political corruption and power misused. Years before the story of COINTELPRO came to light, the whole rotten enterprise is accurately depicted as pure legally defined obscenity. Elsewhere Douglas is subtle and poetic. A boy in loose pajama bottoms stands before a photograph of a young girl drinking from a cup. A single teardrop is at the corner of his eye. The caption reads: “my mother told me that we may be bare-footed and hungry, but that won’t stop our struggle for freedom.” The artwork within the pages of Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas stands the time test. I do not doubt the art of Andy Warhol will be admired, if not enjoyed, 100 years into the future. I am likewise certain that Warhol's contemporary, Emory Douglas will be considered an artist of equal quality, perhaps greater socio-cultural significance.

2007-04-24T04:01:00.000-07:00

Barry Werth: 31 Days: Gerald Ford, the Nixon Pardon, and a Government in Crisis (Anchor Books) The forces of history are seldom gentle and never predictable. Congressman Gerald Ford would no doubt have been a forgotten Republican Party hack, if he had not been yanked to the center of the biggest scandal in the history of his party and appointed to the position routinely described as the most powerful in the world. A week into his controversial administration pundits at the television networks were declaring his presidency a success and crediting Ford with having turned the tables on the Democrats. Weeks later, near the end of “impeachment summer” the most learned of network pundits, Eric Sevareid was already having second thoughts, as a possible presidential pardon for Nixon increasingly became the issue of the day. This new book is an often astonishingly detailed account of the first month of the first appointed executive administration in U.S. history. Barry Werth describes the crucial events as they unfold, often stepping back to fill in background details. The careful student of the game of politics and anyone wanting to avoid the mistakes of recent history will want to include 31 Days on their reading list.

2007-04-24T03:25:00.000-07:00

Jules Witcover: Very Strange Bedfellows: The Short and Unhappy Marriage of Richard Nixon & Spiro Agnew (PublicAffairs) Spiro Agnew, a nasty man with an ugly name, turned everything he touched into a thing in no way resembling gold. Even a tool of the poets such as alliteration, became a dull edged weapon in his hands, much as Agnew himself served in the hands of Richard Nixon. We laughed at Agnew because we were too frightened and too angry to cry. Half a century later, the study of the Nixon/Agnew administration continues to give us much to brood over in the form of book upon book. Jules Witcover himself is something of a one-man production line, having already written several books on the subject. Yet, as our government continues to disappoint, as corruption continues to find new avenues toward the same awful ends, it is hard to argue that we do not need to learn from the atrocious failure that was the Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew administration. Very Strange Bedfellows is an old story with new details, built upon ever increasing new sources of information. Bob Woodward called Nixon’s White House tapes “the gift that keeps on giving.” That description could just as well be used to describe the whole sordid Nixon administration. Witcover’s new book perhaps relies too heavily upon his previous books, but there are new details worth finding. It would be a huge stretch to say this new Watergate related book is needed, but those like myself who can never quite get enough of this topic will certainly want to read it. Those who are new to the study of Agnew and his accomplices could hardly find a better or more entertaining place to begin.

2007-03-04T01:43:00.000-08:00

The Race Beat: the Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation: Hank Klibanoff and Gene Roberts (Knopf, 2006). Race hatred is at the core of U.S. history. The twin efforts to document and fight these ugly sentiments have long moved arm in arm. The dark shadow of racism is cast over our history and pre-history. The white on black struggle that would in modern times become known as the civil rights movement can trace its origins to the 16th Century when a Dominican priest named Las Casas tried to end the genocide of one oppressed people – the Haitian Indians -- by replacing it with another slower, larger genocide. The importation of 15,000 African slaves to San Domingo slowed the enslavement of the island natives and introduced the slave trade to the Americas. The American Revolution itself rose up from the economic need to ensure the continuation of slavery, after a 1772 decision in the High Court of London to free a slave named Somerset. The history of the civil rights movement is an enormous body of work, and the relationship between the press and the struggle for civil rights is a rich source for historical narrative. In an era in which new technologies are forcing journalism through many rapid not necessarily healthy changes, it is more important than ever to look into the recent history of media. Many well-known journalists of the last half of the 20th century had careers jump-started and/or reputations enhanced by work on what was called “the race beat.” This new book likewise called The Race Beat is thankfully biased toward those papers where editorial departments came down on the side of freedom. Yet it also tells the story of the segregationists and white supremacists. Such wretched figures as James J. Kilpatrick of The Richmond News-Leader and Thomas R. Waring at The Charleston News & Courier fought to the bitter end to insure African-Americans remained under the bondage of Jim Crow. Coming down on the side of good sense and goodness was Atlanta’s own Ralph McGill at The Atlanta Constitution. His words sound timid today, but at the time he was one of only a few editors in the south speaking words of sanity. Less well known but equally as important as McGill was the brave African-American journalists named L. Alex Wilson who fought racism for many years. On one occasion at Central High in Little Rock he became part of the story, passively fighting with his body. He died not many months later as a result of his injuries. Other journalists, black and white, died or received grave injuries trying to tell the story of the fight for civil rights. Their story is told with clarity and detail in The Race Beat.

2007-02-25T03:58:00.000-08:00

Margaret MacMillan: Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World (Random House, 2007). Two men, one a ferocious anti-communist and icon of the American right, the other a vicious communist and icon of the international left, met and talked for an hour. Is it fair to say they changed the world for the better? According to this new full-length study of the event, the answer is clearly "maybe". The most disappointing aspect of this fascinating, easy to read, historical narrative, is this never answered question. For all the terrible things both men did in their lives, it would be satisfying to find one undeniably good thing they both did together, but history is seldom so simple and pat. Both men certainly have their champions. Despite his tyrannical 40 years at the top of the Chinese communist party, there are still many who consider Mao a hero of the international peasant masses. Despite his desire to dissect the U.S. Constitution, there are some on the left who credit Nixon for his relatively sane legislative efforts. Nixon and Mao is not particularly gentle on either of these political criminals, yet it is even-handed and smart, and, in fact, does not call them criminals. Zhou Enlai, Kissinger and the other secondary characters get their fair share of the story, but MacMillan never forgets who are the central figures in this complex tragic-comic tale. The reader comes away from Nixon and Mao better informed about this crucial event in the history of the United States and China. Yet that same reader will want to know more about our two anti-heroes, a near perfect ending to a work of popular history, regardless of that one unanswered question.

2007-02-13T03:56:00.000-08:00

The Black Panthers: Photographs by Stephen Shames (Aperture, 2007). The Black Panthers is a long awaited collection of the stunning black-and-white photographs by Stephen Shames: photos of the Party at the height of its influence and importance. Some readers might wonder why we need another book about the Black Panthers in 2007. Indeed, there are several excellent studies of the Panthers already published. I recommend two books in particular, The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered) (Black Classics, 1998), edited by Charles E. Jones, and Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party (Routledge, 2001), edited by Kathleen Cleaver and George Katsiaficas. These help restore truth and sanity to the historical analysis of the Party. The Black Panthers Speak, (Da Capo, 2002), edited by Philip S. Foner, is an excellent collection of essays by those who actually lived and worked within the Party, but none of these books is as moving as this new volume of photography. Stephen Shames captures the faces of brave young men and women at critical historical moments. The young Panthers come to life, in too many cases back to life, upon the page. These beautiful black revolutionaries look to the future with determination and passion. Better than thousands upon thousands of words, these extraordinary photographs take us back to the heart of their fight for freedom. We are there with them, discovering their grace, their humor, their faith in the truth of the revolutionary cause. Forty years on, ground has been gained. Unfortunately, much, if not most, of what the Panthers struggled toward, has yet to be achieved. The Panthers dignity, commitment and love, often wrongly defined as hate, should give hope to the activists of today and the revolutionaries of tomorrow.

There are plenty of photographs of the young Panthers, male and female, in their familiar berets and black leather, looking tough and stylish, with pseudo-military poses, no doubt scaring the shit out of Nixon’s frightened silent majority of white Amerikkka. Where this book excels is when it takes us into not so familiar terrain. Outside a liquor store boycott, surrounded by sign-carrying ordinary folks are three members of the Black Panther band, the Lumpen. Heretofore, I have never heard of this group. Certainly I have never heard their music, but looking at them caught in black and white, just two guys with congas and a third with no instrument but his moves, and I know they had to be great. And I love the name! Photos of the Panther’s free food and clothing stores show how the Party was about much more than standing up to the man, quoting from law books and flashing big guns. No words could ever capture the image of the children of party members at attention next to their desks at a Panthers elementary school classroom. These kids appear somehow simultaneously remarkable and just plain ordinary children.

We are also given a glimpse into the post-prison lifestyle of the Panther’s cult-of-personality leader, Huey P. Newton, doing an interview before a television camera crew in his luxurious penthouse apartment with a gray panorama city skyline backdrop. Contrast this nervous looking celebrity and his faux-Tonight Show set-piece with the photo of a grinning, proud young teen showing off his new duds at the Panther free clothing store, an enormous pile of earth in the background. The demise of the Panthers starts to make more sense. There is no doubt that the insidious government program COINTELPRO was what murdered the Black Panther Party. Likewise the FBI’s slow process of infiltration and corruption led to many if not most of the organizational flaws, but there seems to have been a sickness within the Party which may or may not have existed without Hoover’s cruel assistance.

In addition to Stephen Shames' brilliant photography, this new book includes essays by Black Panther co-founder, Bobby Seale and historian Charles E. Jones. The book also includes the original October 1966 Black Panther Party Platform and Program, an African-Americans Declaration of Independence of a sort. The ten points of this declaration show how far African-American people have to go to achieve the goals of the Black Panther Party and honor the lives and deaths of these fierce and compassionate activists. This new book helps puts the struggle toward freedom that defined the Black Panther Party into the here and now.

2007-01-24T23:59:00.000-08:00

The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism: Haynes Johnson (Harcourt paperback, 2006). In the wake of the recent elections, some casual commentators suggest the political worm has turned, that the descent toward neo-fascism has been diverted. Indeed many of the forty thieves are unseated, indicted or in a few satisfying instances, locked up in prison. Yet, most of the worst of them are still around. Right-wing power holds fast. Arguably the two most important branches of the government remain in the hands of the Republicans. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is effectively de-fanged. The Age of Anxiety shows we have been here before, and how we survived and defeated the American proto-fascists the last time around. Haynes Johnson is hardly a newcomer to historical journalism. He made his mark as a journalist covering the civil rights movement, specifically the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. Since then he has published more than a dozen books on subjects ranging from the Bay of Pigs to Clinton’s aborted health care initiative. Nevertheless, most of his previous efforts have not been as opinion laden as this latest excellent effort. The Age of Anxiety is Johnson’s philosophical masterwork, and yet it remains firmly based in journalism. He knows how to tell a story, and with great care he retells the story of Joseph McCarthy and his demagogic rise to power and his rapid shameful fall. Recently some revisionists have attempted to revamp McCarthy’s pitiful image, but Johnson shows how misguided such fanatics really are, despite the fact that these revisionists are the current vanguard of what remains of the party of Lincoln. Johnson’s historical analysis was one of the crucial works of 2005. Now it is finally available in this more affordable, easier to handle paperback format.

2007-01-24T05:49:00.000-08:00

Letter to a Christian Nation: Sam Harris (Knopf). The land of the free, home of the brave, U.S. of A. is nothing if not an odd, paradoxical place. Money driven, obsessed by technology and sex crazed, our country has as many churches as burger joints. In Sam Harris’ not so tempered words we now appear “like a lumbering, bellicose, dim-witted giant” to an increasingly secular Western world. Harris is one of a new breed of anti-religious zealots bent on driving a stake into the heart of this Christian Nation. At the risk, strike that, the certainly of offending many a good Christian, not to mention the Muslims, Jews, and the rest, I say good luck to him and his kind. Letter to a Christian Nation is the follow-up to his previous delirious attack upon the faithful and their faith, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason and a companion to the like minded Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. At a mere 96 pages this might be the best place for the novice secularist to begin before delving into those heftier, earlier polemics. Though this is presented as an answer to his Christian critics, it is not likely to convince anyone. It is the proverbial example of preaching to the black hooded anti-choir. Critics of Harris and Dawkins accuse them of not saying anything new. Perhaps there is some truth to the criticism, but where else are these supposedly obvious things being said? Where are the critics of every politician of the so-called-left or the very far right when they start slobbering on about their faith? What the heck does faith have to do with the war in Iraq? I almost forgot. Faith is in fact the cause of that war, and most of the rest of the problems in the world today and for the last several thousand years of recorded history. This small book is nothing but a poke in the belly of the beast known as Christianity.

2007-01-21T04:55:00.000-08:00

Here is my “ten best” CD’s & LP’s of 2006.

1. Tom Waits: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, & Bastards (Anti CD)
2. Cat Power: The Greatest (Matador L.P.)
3. Fonotone Records: 1956 – 1969 (Dust-to-Digital Box Set)
4. John Fahey: Sea Changes and Coelacanths: A Young Person's Guide to John Fahey (Table of the Elements L.P.)
5. John Cale: New York in the 1960’s (Table of the Elements Box Set)
6. Erase Errata: Nightlife (Kill Rock Stars)
7. Vietnam: Past Away (Scared CD)
8. Grace Braun: Rose of Sharon (CD)
9. Hub Cap City: Superlocalhellfreakride (Ponce de Leon CD)
10. Jon Langford: Nashville Radio: Art, Words, and Music (Book with CD)

2007-01-19T01:40:00.000-08:00

Peter Case: As Far As You Can Get Without a Passport (For Now, 2007). Disclaimer (and it’s a big one): For Now is an imprint of everthemore Books. Everthemore is the publishing arm of the bookstore where I work and pretty much live when I am not at home reading books or sitting in front of this computer thinking about books. My ability to eat and put gas in my car and buy more books (and records) depends on the sales of this book, and a bunch of other books, thank you very much. Despite all of that, I would not say this new book was great, if I didn’t think it was great. I do say it is great, though there is not much to it: 51 pages. Really, it is nothing more than an article between covers. As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport is/was published and perhaps written in the tradition of all those delicious, slender City Lights paperback classics. It is as good as any of them, better than a lot of them. Appropriately enough, most of the action takes place more or less at the doorstep of the City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. Peter Case is an extremely talented bluesman singer/songwriter, but you really don’t need familiarity with his discography to read and enjoy this, his first book. The distinctive sound of his guitar comes across loud and clear and beautifully upon the printed page. It is the usual, familiar American story. A young dropout hits the road and heads west. It is 1973 and the poor sap has missed the 1960’s. Punk rock is three years away, but like so many before him, he follows the westward dream, starting out with nothing but the prerequisite army-green duffle, cheap guitar and bottle of wine. The sound of the time was Exile on Main Street and The Harder They Come soundtrack album, but this book sounds more like Peter’s beloved Elmore James track, “Sunnyland Moan”. As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport is the first part of an in-progress memoir to-be. Yet, it works like it is as slice-of -life music on the page.

2007-01-15T03:54:00.000-08:00

The best of the year list is a noble tradition that I can never pass up. At this point there are dozens of 2006 books I should read, but have not yet had time for. As always I will be trying to catch up with 2006 for years to come. Fortunately, I never will catch up with 2006 or any other year for that matter. Nevertheless, ‘tis the season for the lists, so here are my favorite books of the year, so far… Those who have looked at this blog already should not be surprised by my number one choice.

1. Outlaws of America: Dan Berger (AK Press)
2. Waiting ‘Til The Midnight Hour: Peniel E. Joseph (Henry Holt)
3. The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights – Black Power Era: Peniel E. Joseph, ed. (Routledge)
4. The God Delusion: Richard Dawkins (Houghton)
5. Last of the Red Hot Poppas: Jason Berry (Chin Music)
6. Empire Workshop: Latin America, the United States and the Rise of the New Imperialism: Greg Grandin (Metropolitan)
7. The Heebie – Jeebies At CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk: Steven Lee Beeber (Chicago Review Press)
8. Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad; Kael Alford; Thorne Anderson; Rita Leistner (Chelsea Green)
9. An Incomplete History of the Art of Funerary Violin: Rohan Kriwaczek (Overlook)
10. Sing A Battle Song: Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground: Bernardine Dohrn; Bill Ayers; Jeff Jones, ed. (7 Stories)

2006-12-26T01:42:00.000-08:00

A month or two back, Matthew Fritch of Magnet magazine sent some questions about my friend Chan of Cat Power fame for a story he was working on. I asked if it was ok for me to post the complete questions & answers here. Matthew only asked if I would wait until the magazine was published. A few days ago he emailed to say the magazine was in the mail. I have not seen the story yet, but I am pretty confident only a small part (if any) of what follows made it into the completed story. I left his questions in the form I received them:

>1. *tell me a bit about the early-90s scene in atlanta and your impressions of it/your place in it. chan talked a bit about some bands: benjamin smoke, opalfoxx quartet, magic bone, a few others. it seemed like a vibrant scene that never got much outside attention.

The "music scene" in Atlanta always has been "vibrant" to the eyes or ears of anyone who bothered to pay attention. I think it still is, though I don't pay too much attention these days. Some of the same talented people from my day are still at it and still making good music. Bill Taft, who played in Benjamin's bands, Smoke and the Opal Foxx Quartet, is still at it playing with his new band, Hubcap City. They have a new 7"which is amazing, put out by my friend (and co-worker at A Cappella Books) Chad Radford. Grace Braun who played with the great DQE is still going strong. She has a new CD called "Rose of Sharon" which is likewise good, maybe great. As for the "old days", well to quote Slim Charles from my favorite television show, HBO's "The Wire", "they are the old days."

I published a fanzine called LowLife. I put out 17 issues between 1984 and 1992. There was a great deal happening in Atlanta worth remembering, but I don't think many people bother to remember. I don't think this is a symptom found only in Atlanta. Seems like much of the best art, music, literature, whatever, is forgotten every day that goes by. I have always tried to stir up a few memories of stuff worth not forgetting.

During the two years I was in New York, there was a really amazing band called God Is My Co-Pilot. You probably know about them, but a lot of people have already forgotten them. At the time they seemed to be the most amazing thing going. They must have put out nearly a record per month in 1993. Chad Radford recently described them as nothing but a footnote to "the scene".

I could write a book, perhaps several books, on the "Atlanta scene" of the early 90's/late 80's/early 80's/etc. Chad Radford is working on just such a book, tentatively titled, "Illusions of LowLife: the Secret Atlanta underground 1984 to 1992", which will include reprints of much of my music writing from LowLife and a CD of all the good music I released on record in conjunction with the 'zine.

I also had a radio show called Destroy All Music, I co-hosted from 1984 to 1992. I believe it was one of the greatest radio shows ever. My friend (and co host) Ellen McGrail still does the show with her boyfriend Tony Gordon. It is still good, though slightly different. Ellen and Tony put their own spin of the destruction of music. The old DAM was more of a no wave show. The current version is more of a noise/jazz thing. Nevertheless I played lots of noisy jazz in my day. No doubt E. & T. play some stuff a gal or a guy could call no wave.

We (Ellen and myself and many others) also put on four Destroy All Music Festivals during that same period. Loads of great musicians such as Borbetomagus, the Shaking Ray Levis, Bruce Hampton, etc., etc. etc. appeared at our festivals. Recently Tony and Ellen put on a fifth. More great music!

Unfortunately, most of the music from the old days is lost to contemporary ears because there are very few recordings. There is/was a pretty good 7" by Damon's band Magic Bone put out by an Atlanta label called Worry Bird, a clever vinyl scout could probably dig up with the help of the web. Magic Bone was sort of southern boogie meets grunge, I thought they were pretty great.

Benjamin (of Smoke, etc.) appears on a few tracks on records I included with some issues (#'s 15, 16 & 17) of my 'zine, LowLife. There were two Smoke LP's released in the early 90's, soon to be reissued in a very fancy box-set type CD format. Keep your eyes and ears open and you might find the prize.

So "the scene" goes on. And nobody cares.

> 2.)*when/how did you first meet chan? what were your impressions of her?

I think I met Chan in 1991. She worked at a Pizza joint in our neighborhood. Mark Moore and Fletcher Legerot (spelling not sure about) had both heard her songs and thought she would be a good person to form a band with. We were always forming bands in those days. The original Cat Power lineup was Chan and Damon and Mark and Fletcher and myself. Everyone played guitar, but me. I played drums. My "impression" of her was she was an amazing young woman. That has not changed.

>3.) *wondering if you could confirm spelling and basically I.D. some people she mentioned you both played with: damon and mark moore, fletcher (last nameunknown). was this like an early version of cat power?

See number "2".

> 4.) *you and chan moved up to nyc in what year? she mentions the move was partially because of drugs becoming a problem in the atlanta scene – were the deaths of damon and mark moore drug-related?

I think Chan and I moved to New York in September of 1992. I don't think the move had anything to do with drugs. Although I am sure Chan was not thrilled with all the drugs her friends in Atlanta were using at the time. If Chan wanted to move away from drugs, why the hell would she move to New York? Sorry to answer a question with a question, but it just seems to be a rather funny notion. I think Chan is being a little creative with her memories. Or maybe I am wrong. Maybe that is why she moved. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time. It still seems like the thing to do some days.

I want to say a few things about Mark Moore and Damon Moore. First of all Mark and Damon are not related, in case you were wondering. Likewise, their deaths are unrelated. Damon died a few years after I moved back from New York, due to an overdose of heroin. Mark died about two years ago. Mark's death had nothing to do with drugs. In fact, Mark did not use drugs, though I suppose he drank too much. He died from some sort of brain hemorrhage. They were both really great guys, two of my best friends, and I miss them both.

> 5.) *chan mentions you taking her to see anthony braxton perform in nyc. did you know that that would have such an impact on her? (with regards to how she views musical performances and the relationship between audience/performer.)

I did not know that Braxton had such an influence on her until I just read it in your question. When I talk to Chan we never talk about bands or music or "the scene".

I think Braxton is one of the greatest living musicians along with Ornette Coleman, Captain Beefheart, Brian Eno and almost no one else I can think of at this moment. I did an interview with Braxton, printed in LowLife, which was pretty good, I think. I hope.

> 6.) *kind of a funny question: when i was with her, chan talked to EVERYONE - kids on the street, people in line at the deli, whoever. has she always been like that?

I think this is an excellent question.

One of the most perceptive things I ever read about Chan was in some local Atlanta article, I think it was in our entertainment weekly, "Creative Loafing", usually an unreadable piece of shit, best used for packing material, etc. I can only paraphrase: "Chan treats everyone like they are the most important person in the world".

I believe Chan believes whoever she is with is the most important person in the world, if only at that moment she is with them. For this reason, and many others, everyone seems to love Chan. She is one of the kindest souls I have ever known. Bless her for being who she is.

To answer your question, she has always been "like that", as long as I have known her, and she was 17 when I met her (I think?) maybe 18. She is especially fond of children and dogs and elderly people, as she will be happy to tell you.

> 7.) *i don't know how close you've been with her in recent years, but did you have any idea that she'd become so depressed and dependent on alcohol? Were people trying to reach out to her?

I don't see Chan as often as I would like, but I believe we are very close. Nevertheless, taking into account my answer to the previous question, don't
we all?

I have never considered Chan to have a problem with drugs and alcohol, but she seems to think she did (or does?) have such a problem. She certainly knows herself better than I do. As for "reaching out", I believe that would (always is) a bad idea in such situations, if you mean something like "tough love" or a so-called "intervention". No one can solve addiction problems but the so-called (love that "so-called" stuff, don't you?) addict, and I know a great deal, unfortunately, about the topic of addiction.

> 8.) *and finally, what did you and chan talk about when you last had contact 6 months ago? do you feel like she's (sorry, cliche ahead) on a better path now?

We had breakfast together, and we went shopping. (I had a flat tire along the way.) We talked about everything and nothing. She seemed very happy and was stunningly beautiful. Her smile was the biggest thing I have ever seen. And yet I think this was only a week (perhaps days) before she cancelled a bunch of tour dates and went into some personal transformation mode of operation. I don't know what that was about. I suppose she was not so happy after all. I hope she is on a "better path", if anyone deserves a "better path" it is Chan. More than anything I hope she is still smiling, still happy, when next we meet.

2006-11-28T09:01:00.000-08:00

When Harlem Nearly Killed King: Hugh Pearson (Seven Stories Press, 2004) In this interesting, fact-jammed piece of historical journalism Pearson (Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America) traces the lives of various people, famous and forgotten, at a crucial instance in the fight against racism. He shows how various elements political, philosophical, medical, and social brush against one another on one bloody, fateful day, September 20th, 1958 when nothing less than the future of the Civil Rights struggle lay on the operating table at Harlem Hospital.

2006-11-28T04:04:00.000-08:00

Free Press: Underground & Alternative Publications 1965 – 1975: Jean-Francois Bizot (UNIVERSE, 2006) is a handsome, oversized collection of images from the height of the underground press era of the United States and Europe. The oversized format well accommodates the newspaper style and silk-screened beauty of many of these extraordinary publications. Unfortunately this collection is heavy on looks and very short on content, but I suppose that was inevitable with the limitations and space involved. The 2nd word in Barry Miles’ introduction is “nostalgic” and sadly nostalgia is all that remains of “the sixties” for many of this book’s potential “readers”. The fact is there is little reading to be done here. This is all about the striking image, the breathtaking slice of cover art, and for some a frozen moment of remembrance of an entire era past indeed. There are article reprints. Yet, more often than not, when things get interesting, one is led to an inside page that does not exist. This book is about the idea of Black Power, the idea of revolution, the idea of the peace movement, the idea of anti-imperialism, and obviously the idea of something called “the sixties” that most people who will enjoy this book had nothing to do with. It should come as no surprise then that the media wings of the Panthers and the Weathermen, The Black Panther and Osawatomie respectively, are not represented here. On the other hand, Atlanta’s own excellent The Great Speckled Bird is proudly represented with a “You Can’t Jail the Revolution” Huey P. Newton, silk-screened cover. Likewise, it appears arbitrary to take this up to The New York Rocker and a John Holmstrom, Punk magazine styled East Village Other cover and simply go no further. What about Sniffin’ Glue, Search & Destroy, Factsheet Five, Rollerderby, Nancy’s Magazine and a hundred others too numerous to mention? The underground press did not really come to a close in 1975. It continued more or less up until it was pushed into the dumpster of history by a new generation of non-print technology. This process is going on today. But this is a book about yesterday, about a time when phrases like “Freak Out” and “Power to the People” meant something. Certainly it is a lovely thing to behold, a reminder of what could have been and maybe even about what could be again.

2006-11-19T01:44:00.000-08:00

Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir by Lisa Crystal Carver (Soft Skull Press). With this fun yet moving poster-punky memoir Lisa (you might remember her as Suckdog) Carver takes the willing reader back to a magical, secretive moment in the post-post-modern underground era of the 80’s and 90’s. It was the era of Bill Callahan (Smog), of Jean-Louis Costes, of Psycodrama, of G.G. Allin, of so many to the edge and beyond performer/musicians who are quickly quietly slipping into the lost memories realm. Lisa is perhaps best known (and I hope remembered by a few) for her delicious fanzine, ”Rollerderby”. She was also an amazing performer and anti-musician/artist responsible for many lost minor-masterpieces. Her records such as “Drugs Are Nice” and “Rape G.G.” remain decent enough snapshots of what she was capable of for those lucky enough to have obtained and held onto copies. With this new book Lisa takes us back to that strange, scary time. Along the way Lisa remembers her trip to Atlanta and appearance at the Fourth Destroy All Music Festival, where she performed with Debbey Richardson and Benjamin Smoke. D.A.M. 4 was one of the great events of the secret history of the Atlanta entertainment underground, so I am happy someone has had the good sense to document those noisy hours in book form, if only for a few paragraphs. Throughout this book Lisa leads us into a world few dared to enter. She is and was fearless. I love her for that. I am also glad she seems to have survived her adventures more or less intact.

2006-11-16T02:25:00.000-08:00

Sing A Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970 – 1974. Edited by Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones. (Seven Stories Press) November, post-election, and the quasi-liberals have finally regained control of Congress, and I suppose that is a good thing, certainly it is a less bad thing than the alternative. Whether it is enough to save the country and the planet, whether it is enough to revive the potential buried in the United States Declaration of Independence, is yet to be seen. I have to wonder what nefarious back room deals took place, for the vote manipulators to allow such an outcome. Let us not forget for one moment a moron madman still sits at his thrown, all twelve digits resting madly on all triggers. The man’s inability to maintain or communicate a complex thought is plain to all. Yet the Washington press core remains as mum as the yellow Chrysanthemums currently on display outside my neighborhood Whole Foods Market. And let us not forget that the democrats are at best the proverbial lesser evil.

It is a good time to look back at a not dissimilar moment in history. It is June 1969. Another slimy little wannabe king sits at the head of the Imperial American States. Another meaningless war is raging on the other side of the globe, spitting out countless civilian deaths on a daily basis that very few even bother to notice. All the while a determined guerrilla army is embarrassing and bewildering the mighty American military machine. At home the youth movement is in turmoil. At the national convention of the radical student organization, the Students for a Democratic Society (S.D.S.) there is a revolution within revolution. The result is the Weather Underground Organization.

This new book brings back into print three of the best of many Weather publications. The excellent Weather magazine “Osawatomie” is yet to be re-issued. Included are the three book length projects: the eponymous “Sing a battle song”, “Prairie Fire” and “The Weather Eye”. The original “Sing a battle song: Poems by women in the weather underground organization” is a collection of radical poetry, not always great literature, but always on the edge and on the mark. The following is from a poem called “FOR ASSATA SHAKUR” the author like all of them is anonymous:

“Underground is not the right word
It makes it seem too simple,
As if there is an easy way to disappear
A place to go

Beneath the city streets
There is no safe passage.
You moved among your people
A gentle wind
Invisibly winding into their lives
Constrained a normal human response to daily injustice
With an exhausting effort
A ballooning breath of anger caged inside
Carefully choosing the moment of attack
And with muscles taut like the stretched skin of a drum
Rode the subways between two businessmen
Studying your picture in the New York Times.

Although we had never seen one another
I wondered how you liked to spend those moments
When freedom meant
You knew
They didn’t know.”

Beautiful and raw, this is a blinding snapshot of an era when the streets ran red with revolutionary blood.

“The Weather Eye: Communiques from the Weather Underground, May 1970 – May 1974” is a collection of the various statements released by Weather, more often than not in conjunction with a revolutionary action. Here is Bernardine Dohrn from the first communiqué: “Freaks are revolutionaries and revolutionaries are freaks. If you want to find us, this is where we are. In every tribe, commune, dormitory, farmhouse, barracks and townhouse where kids are making love, smoking dope and loading guns – fugitives from Amerikan justice are free to go.”

“Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism: Political Statement of the Weather Underground” is the voice of Weather at its most mature and complete, a brilliant revolutionary voice speaking with clarity and calm, that is worth listening to even from the vantage of thirty years on. “Prairie Fire” also comes with a bibliography of the radical left which remains as complete a source of revolutionary reading I have seen anywhere, before or since.

In addition to the three reissued books, there is a useful twenty-year timeline. An alternative history in short informative blurbs, this timeline documents the movement and events which contributed to the movement, from the censure of Joseph McCarthy, in March 1954 through the official dissolution of the Weather Underground in December 1976. For the period of time covered this is remarkably inclusive, unfortunately it does not include such earlier events as the World War II resistance movement or such later tragedies as the capture of David Gilbert and Kuwasi Balagoon. There are also new essays/introductions by Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Avers, Jeff Jones and Jonah Raskin. I found Dohrn’s article to be especially relevant and revelatory.

Together these three books combine to make a powerful statement. These books are more than a call to arms. They constitute a way of life, in words, in poem and prose, an education toward a new, better, truer way to live. This from the original introduction to “Sing a battle song”: “We are daughters of the Vietnam war, schooled by Black and Third World struggles, having come of age within the massive resistance of students, youth and women. We are joining our lives with the needs and aspirations of poor and working class women; we are learning our strengths as women fighting for liberation alongside our sisters here and around the world. In choosing this underground path, we and our brothers have made a commitment to continuing our opposition to US imperialism and to creating a political and armed organization for revolution.”-- sounds as relevant today as it was then.

Someone recently asked why I am so interested in the Weather Underground, the Black Panther Party and other 1960's/1970's era radical political movements. It is a complex question that probably deserves a complex answer, but for now, I simply find I learn more from Bernardine Dohrn than from Amy Goodman. So I suppose I am stuck in the past, hoping to find a few answers for the future.

2006-10-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Lillian at Criminal Records asked me to contribute a list of my favorite 15 records of the last 15 years as a part of a customer poll that they are doing to celebrate their 15th anniversary. This is what I sent:

1. Cat Power: Moon Pix 1998
2. Al Green: I Can’t Stop 2003
3. Tom Waits: Mule Variations 1999
4. Unrest: Imperial f.f.r.r. 1992
5. James Blood Ulmer: Black & Blues 1991
6. Johnny Cash: American Recordings 1991
7. Borbetomagus & Voice Crack: Asbestos Shake 1992
8. Dead C: Harsh 70’s Reality 1992
9. The Ex and Tom Cora: Scrabbling at the Lock 1991
10. Nirvana: Nevermind 1991
11. Peter Case: Six Pack of Love 1992
12. John Fahey: Red Cross 2003
13. Flying Saucer Attack: Further 1995
14. Jim O’Rourke: Terminal Pharmacy 1995
15. Pavement: Slanted and Enchanted 1992

2006-10-10T01:48:00.000-07:00

As I write HBO’s “The Wire” is in the middle of its 4th Season. “The Wire” is proving itself to be far and above the best show on television, cable or otherwise, if not the best show television has ever produced. Creator David Simon and his crew of co-writers are producing much more than simply another murder-of-the-week crime drama/policier. “The Wire” is also several steps beyond the genre-busting standards already established by excellent previous HBO hour-long dramas such as “The Sopranos” and “Deadwood” or even the weirder than mere genre shows like “Oz” (which started it all!), “Six Feet Under” or “Big Love” (the latest of the HBO drama rooster). “The Wire” is nothing less than the literary novel-form come-to the screen. Though I am far from the first to describe it as such, there is no better or truer description of what Simon, Ed Burns, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Richard Price and the various other writers and directors of this series are putting together. “The Wire” is a serial-novel of the small screen, at once exquisitely cinematic and thoughtfully literary, at once on-the-money realism that is wrought with metaphor and meaning.

Much the way James Joyce built to the smallest detail a stylized Dublin out of “Ulysses”, “Dubliners”, “A Portrait of the Artist” and the dream-Dublin of “Finnegans Wake”, Simon is building piece upon piece a fictional Baltimore, Maryland. Joyce’s Dublin fit precisely into the place left by the historical Dublin. He went so far as to use maps and lists of addresses to be sure his main characters houses were empty and available at the time of the story of “Ulysses”. The fictional Baltimore of “The Wire” is similarly true to the details of clothes, language, behavior and boarded-up row houses. Yet this is very far from a docu-drama thankfully. Small details of characterization and action turn out to be significant many episodes or even seasons later. A kid on the street says “I’ll take anybody’s money if he’s giving it away.” At the end of the same episode a crooked politician says the same thing. As the wise detective Lester Freadmon has said: “all the pieces matter.”

Much like the great serial novels of Anthony Powell and Dorothy M. Richardson or the popular serial fantasy fiction of Tolkien and Herbert, the three complete seasons of “The Wire” stands alone or it can be viewed as a trilogy. Any one of the 13 novels of Dorothy Richardson’s extraordinary and now all but forgotten masterpiece, “Pilgrimage” can be read as a complete work. So too any one episode of “The Wire” is a small satisfying slice of the whole. Yet one episode is but a glimpse into the whole narrative and like all the best works of art or the artisan, a single episode certainly leaves the viewer wanting more. David Simon has plans for a five-year cycle. Let us hope he gets to take his story that far. Let us hope he is not cut short the way David Milch’s “Deadwood” was recently cancelled after three of its planned for four years.

2006-09-14T00:40:00.000-07:00

Grace Lee Boggs: “Living For Change: An Autobiography” (University of Minnesota Press, 1998) Grace Lee Boggs is one of the great under-recognized American revolutionary/radical heroes. Born to Chinese-American parents in 1915 and as far as I can tell, still active to this day in Detroit with the Boggs Center, Grace has been at or near the heart of nearly a century of the struggle for change in this country. Written in a warm, loving yet analytical style, “Living For Change” is equal parts history, philosophy and memoir. For much of her life, Grace lived willingly under the shadow of two remarkable males. First Grace worked alongside C.L.R. James, the Trinidad born political/literary theorist and author of many books including: “The Black Jacobins” (1938) and “Mariners, Renegades & Castaways: the story of Herman Melville and the world we live in” (1952). As early as 1947 Grace co-wrote a book with Paul Romano under the pseudonym Ria Stone, “The American Worker” (Johnson-Forest Tendency). Later Grace worked with, fell in love with, and married the not-so well-known James Boggs author of the seminal “The American Revolution” (Monthly Review Press, 1963). James Boggs also wrote “Racism and the Class Struggle” (Monthly Review Press, 1970) and the brilliant, 39 page, “Manifesto for a Black Revolutionary Party” (Pacesetters, 1969). In 1974 “Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century” (Monthly Review Press), was published. Grace received a perhaps overdue co-writers credit. “Conversations in Maine: Exploring our Nation’s Future” (South End Press, 1978) was co-written by James and Grace with long time comrades, Freddy and Lyman Paine.

The writing and organizational works of Grace Lee and James Boggs were always ahead of their times. Perhaps in part for this very reason, the Boggs have never been given the credit they deserve. For example, James Boggs was amongst a small group of people talking about the idea of Black Power several years before Stokley Carmichael and Willie Ricks turned the slogan “Black Power” into a Black Power movement, at the side of an unprepared Martin Luther King, during the 1966 Meredith March Against Fear. In 1964, working out of the Boggs basement, the Revolutionary Action Movement put together an issue of a magazine called “Black America” with a cover illustration of Max Stanford and contents that included quotations from Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammed, W.E.B. Du Bois, Robert Williams, Malcolm X, and Albert B. Cleage (father of Pearl) plus full length articles by Stanford, James Boggs, Rolland Snellings and a letter of “Greetings to our Militant Vietnamese Brothers.” This was years ahead of its time and as Grace says: “although not widely known, remains an excellent introduction to the ideas that went into the creation of the Black Power movement."

The voluminous “Encyclopedia of the American Left”, edited by Mari Jo and Paul Buhle (Garland, 1990), gives James (along with Grace Lee) only one mention in a chapter on “Trotskyism”! Grace Lee has two additional mentions due to her association with C.L.R. James and the Johnson-Forest Tendency. During much of 1940’s and 1950’s Grace worked on the excellent journal “Correspondence” which was published as the voice of the Johnson-Forest Tendency, named after the pseudonyms of C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya respectively. It was as a part of this group that Grace met James. James and Grace went their separate ways from C.L.R. James after Boggs had the nerve to challenge the currency of some of the ideas of Marx in an article which became, perhaps his masterpiece, “The American Revolution.” This 93-page paperback original was something of an underground legend throughout the 1960’s Black movement and radical student movement. In fact, I only recently discovered James Boggs from the bibliography at the back of the Weather Underground book, “Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism” (1974). So again I am indebted to Dan Berger. His book “Outlaws of America” led me to the writings of the Weather Underground which led to James Boggs who led me to Grace Lee. Thanks to them all.

2006-08-24T02:35:00.000-07:00

“Conspiracy in the Streets: the extraordinary trial of the Chicago Eight” (edited by Jon Wiener; Afterword by Tom Hayden; Illustrations by Jules Feiffer) (New Press) This new book about the Chicago Eight (or Seven) trial is a good, late introduction to the remarkable example of the misuse of state power that is called “the Chicago Seven (or Eight) Trial”. Anyone already well read on the details of the case might find this abridged transcript unnecessary. As Wiener acknowledges upfront there is a previously published and much more in depth transcript, “The Conspiracy Trial” edited by John Spitzer and the wonderful, Judy Clavir (a.k.a. Gumbo, partner of Stew). However, the earlier title is not as “widely available” in used bookstores as Wiener suggests. As I type there are 57 copies available through abebooks.com, starting at $6 and going up to around $45 for really nice first edition copies. “The Conspiracy Trial” is not a scarce book by any means. Nevertheless, if you think about it, those abebooks.com numbers suggest there are a heck of a lot of towns were the book is not available at all. This is a very minor point, but it is another reason why this new, less complete, transcript is needed. More importantly this story needs to be remembered. I admire all these eight defendants (plus their lead lawyers Kunstler and Weinglass). I admire them despite their oft-noted ideological differences and, in most cases, their subsequent, imperfect careers. The greatest of them: David Dellinger, Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seale and Tom Hayden were never again united. (Or ever before! Which by the by disproves most of the state’s case against them!) This group of radicals never again came together. The state forced them together in this trial by judge and prosecutor and (infiltrated by at least one agent) jury. So if for no other reason I applaud the state for their ability to create a unique anti-state revolutionary front. In addition to this new partial transcript and the earlier Clavir/Spitzer transcript, there are numerous good books on the Chicago Eight/Seven trial. I recommend Jason Epstein’s “The Great Conspiracy Trial” published by Random House in 1970. Epstein is a really good writer and quite the moderate, though David Horowitz would probably call him “a liberal”. Also worth mentioning are two books by David Dellinger. He writes with great insight about the trial in both “More Power Than We Know” (Anchor, 1975) and “From Yale to Jail” (Pantheon, 1993). Though he was the token pacifist, Dellinger was the one member of the (white) seven conspirators who stood and tried to defend (black) Bobby Seale when Seale was assaulted by (color unknown) marshals during the early part of the trial. Dan Berger noted this fact in his book “Outlaws of America” and in a talk he gave recently at A Cappella Books. For this and many other reasons Dellinger is the member of this group I think I love the most, though there is a place in my heart for them all. “Conspiracy in the Streets” benefits from Jules Feiffer’s nice illustrations. Richard Avedon’s cover photo is also very nice, though Bobby Seale is unfortunately “notably absent” because he was “in jail at the time”.

2006-08-01T02:07:00.000-07:00

“Assata: An Autobiography” by Assata Shakur. This classic autobiography of the heroine revolutionary, Assata Shakur belongs on every progressive bookshelf alongside “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”. This is a tale of turbulent times told with serenity. For someone often called a “cop hater” by her enemies, Assata’s words come from a place of pure love, love for the people of her nation and love for oppressed peoples everywhere. Considering the tremendous abuse she has suffered at the hands of the United States for the better part of the 1970’s, there is no doubt some hatred in her heart - hatred put there in part by hundreds of years of oppression and racism. This is the background no one should forget when reading the story leading to Assata’s arrest and subsequent railroading at the hands of the state, under the guise of “the people”. She was shot, tortured and thrown in a hole in the name of “the people”, in my name and your name. She has been called the “high priestess of the… Black Liberation Army” in the “Daily News” during the press’ efforts in conjunction with the state to frame Assata for a whole string of trumped up charges. Yet, in Charles E. Jones excellent book “The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered)” Assata is referred to as merely a rank-and-file member of the Black Panther Party. In a way, both of these characterizations are accurate. Assata’s career as a revolutionary began quite humbly as a worker for the Panthers. Apparently, she was thrown into the “leadership” spotlight only after she was identified by the state as a “person of interest” wanted for questioning in relation to the murder of a cop in May of 1971. This one false identification threw Assata’s life into the whirlwind of the underground revolution, where she remained until her capture three years later in May of 1973. She was tried and acquitted three times. Once there was a hung jury. Three times cases were dismissed. Still Assata remained locked away for most of a decade, often as not in solitary confinement in the worst of conditions of the prison system within the prison system the United States government reserves for its political prisoners and prisoner’s of war. All of this happened long before the recent well-publicized prisoner abuses related to the so-called “war on terror”. No wonder the current administration assumes it can get away with this shit. Our government has been doing the same thing to its African American prisoner population for, well basically, since the creation of the union. Finally, Assata was convicted on charges stemming from the incidents that occurred when she was originally arrested! Convicted on evidence that does not come close to proving her guilt. Nevertheless, the system simply could not hold a revolutionary force as great as Assata. No amount of steel and concrete could keep her locked up forever. On November 2nd 1979, Black Solidarity Day, Assata escaped. She is living safely in Cuba. As Evelyn Williams says elsewhere, in reference to Assata’s daughter, she is “not living in the drug-infested, death-driven racist country that might claim her life.” I would love to know more operational details of Assata’s escape and of her activities with the Black Liberation movement, but so would the FBI and the CIA and every other WWW (Wicked White Warmonger) out their spying through the proverbial keyhole. For those stories we will have to wait for her next book, perhaps published after the revolution has finally shut down the ugly forces of imperialism, racism and war. That is an on-going process that none of us will see the end of. Assata’s story is just one of many small stories within the process of revolution.

2006-07-28T03:19:00.000-07:00

Note #2. I just noticed that 99 novels is actually 100 novels. So much for following the rules, but then again, how could I ignore my friend Max.

2006-07-28T03:16:00.000-07:00

An explanatory note. I thought it was quite obvious, but apparently I was wrong. The three lists posted below are “best of” lists, in the tradition of Anthony Burgess’ “99 Novels”. My lists are 99 movies, 99 novels and 99 albums. There are a few rules. Only one movie, novel or album per director, writer or artist is allowed, and yes, Chad the order means something. #1 is my favorite. #99 is my 99th favorite, etc. The novels are all in English and published in the 20th century. Other favorite books will be found in some future list(s), no doubt. With the music, I tried to pick actual vinyl long players when possible, but for a few artists from the pre-album era, CD’s seemed the better option. Likewise, I tried to avoid “best-of” collections and live L.P.’s, but some artists who specialized in great singles seemed to demand the greatest hits type collection. Once again those artists whose greatest work was prior to the era of the long-playing 33rpm-L.P. (Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington jumped to the front of the line, as they so often do) demanded a different approach. I hope this answers a few questions, for anybody who is listening.

2006-07-25T00:49:00.000-07:00

1. Alfred Hitchcock: Rear Window (1954)
2. Orson Welles: Citizen Kane (1941)
3. Kenji Mizoguchi: Ugetsu (1953)
4. Robert Bresson: Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
5. Luis Bunuel: Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
6. Carl Dreyer: Day of Wrath (1943)
7. F.W. Murnau: The Last Laugh (1924)
8. Abe Polanski: Force of Evil (1948)
9. Jacque Rivette: Celine & Julie Go Boating (1974)
10. Charles Chaplin: Modern Times (1936)
11. Nicolas Ray: In a Lonely Place (1950)
12. Alain Resnais: Muriel (1963)
13. Stanley Kubrick: Dr. Strangelove (1963)
14. Jean Renoir: Rules of the Game (1939)
15. Preston Sturges: The Lady Eve (1941)
16. Howard Hawks: The Big Sleep (1946)
17. Robert Altman: 3 Women (1977)
18. Anthony Mann: The Man From Laramie (1955)
19. Peter Bogdonavich: The Last Picture Show (1971)
20. John Ford: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
21. Martin Scorsese: Goodfellas (1990)
22. Fritz Lang: You Only Live Once (1937)
23. Jean-Luc Godard: Alphaville (1965)
24. Brian DePalma: Carlitto’s Way (1993)
25. Michelangelo Antonioni: L’Avventura (1960)
26. Sergio Leone: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (1966)
27. Nicolas Roeg: Walkabout (1971)
28. Sam Peckinpah: The Getaway (1972)
29. David Lynch: Eraserhead (1977)
30. Peter Weir: Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
31. Woody Allen: Manhattan (1979)
32. Joel & Ethan Coen: Miller’s Crossing (1990)
33. Ernst Lubitsch: Ninotchka (1939)
34. Joseph Von Sternberg: Morocco (1930)
35. Gillo Pontecorvo: Battle of Algiers (1966)
36. Frank Capra: Meet John Doe (1941)
37. Quentin Tarantino: Pulp Fiction (1994)
38. Henri-Georges Clouzot: Le Corbeau (1943)
39. John Houston: Maltese Falcon (1941)
40. Spike Lee: Do the Right Thing (1989)
41. Claube Chabrol: Cry of the Owl (1987)
42. Roman Polanski: Knife in the Water (1962)
43. Robert Aldrich: Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
44. Jacque Tourneur: Out of the Past (1947)
45. Max Ophuls: Letter From An Unknown Woman (1948)
46. Donald Siegal: The Killers (1964)
47. Robert Siodmak: The Killers (1946)
48. Joseph Lewis: Gun Crazy (1949)
49. Buster Keaton: Sherlock Jr. (1924)
50. Sergie Eisenstein: October (1927)
51. Francois Truffaut: Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
52. Arthur Penn: Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
53. Edgar Ulmer: Detour (1946)
54. Stanley Donen: On the Town (1949)
55. Budd Boetticher: The Bullfighter & the Lady (1951)
56. Raoul Walsh: They Drive By Night (1940)
57. David Mamet: The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
58. Otto Preminger: Bunny Lake is Missing (1965)
59. Vincente Minnelli: Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
60. Leo McCarey: Duck Soup ((1933)
61. Richard Lester: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
62. William Wyler: The Collector (1965)
63. George Cukor: The Women (1939)
64. Frank Borzage: Moonrise (1948)
65. George Axelrod: Lord Love a Duck (1966)
66. John Boorman: Point Blank (1967)
67. Steven Spielberg: Saving Private Ryan (1998)
68. David Fincher: Seven (1997)
69. Carol Reed: The Third Man (1949)
70. Clint Eastwood: The Unforgiven (1993)
71. Eric Rohmer: Clair’s Knee (1970)
72. George Romero: Dawn of the Dead (1979)
73. Jules Dassin: Night and the City (1950)
74. Michael Curtiz: Casablanca (1943)
75. John Carpenter: The Thing (1982)
76. David Cronenberg: Spider (2000)
77. Billy Wilder: Double Indemnity (1944)
78. David Miller: Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
79. Mike Nichols: The Graduate (1968)
80. Charles Laughton: Night of the Hunter (1955)
81. Gene Kelly: Singin’ In the Rain (1952)
82. Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather (1972)
83. Robert Wise: The Set-Up (1949)
84. J. Lee Thompson: Cape Fear (1961)
85. Sidney Lumet: Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
86. John Frankenheimer: Manchurian Candidate (1962)
87. Wachowski Brothers: The Matrix (1999)
88. Ridley Scott: Alien (1979)
89. Richard Brooks: In Cold Blood (1967)
90. James Whale: Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
91. Elia Kazen: On the Waterfront (1943)
92. Tay Garnett: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
93. Abel Ferrara: Bad Lieutenant (1992)
94. Terrance Malick: Badlands (1973)
95. Sam Raimi: A Simple Plan (1998)
96. Terry Gillam: Twelve Monkeys (1995)
97. Hughes Brothers: Menace 2 Society (1993)
98. Joss Whedon: Serenity (2005)
99. Sam Mendes: American Beauty (1999)

2006-07-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

“Killing Time” by Dave Lindorff; “Inadmissible Evidence” by Evelyn A. Williams. Here are two terrific books describing the legal machinations involved behind the state’s persecution (prosecution) of two well-known radical, African-American activists: Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shukur. “Killing Time” is an investigative-journalist style account of the painful to read events that lead to the arrest of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the trial and various appeals that followed. It is perhaps the more controversial of the two books because it does not assume or conclude that Mumia is innocent. I understand that some among the Free Mumia movement have criticized the book, and Lindorff has been called “Mumia Pimp” by the always-colorful MOVE organization. Nevertheless, for someone like myself who is new to the details of this case, “Killing Time” seems the perfect place to begin. Lindorff is consistently fair and impartial and describes the many, many times Mumia’s rights were violated and just how unjust the so-called justice system can so often be. His conclusion is “I am convinced beyond not just a reasonable doubt but beyond any doubt whatsoever, that Mumia Abu-Jamal did not receive even the approximation of a fair trial.” When asked as he says he always is “did he actually shoot” the police officer Mumia was accused of having killed… “the answer has to be maybe.” My own conclusion would be that Mumia should be free regardless of what he originally did or did not do. He has spent as much or more time in prison as many a white man accused of similar charges, and he is such an important and vital member of our community able to accomplish so much from behind bars. Imagine all the good he could do for society, if this peace loving man was not isolated within the confines of the horrendous U.S. penal system. “Inadmissible Evidence” is written in the form of a memoir, by the aunt and attorney of legendary Black Panther and Black Liberation Army, activist Assata Shukur. Williams describes important events of her own life before and after Assata’s trial, but the majority of the book describes the endless efforts of the state to incarcerate her beloved niece, and their ultimate fabulous failure to keep her in prison. “Inadmissible Evidence” is an excellent account of one woman’s struggle to fight the endless oppression of African-Americans, of battles won and battles lost. At times there are annoying holes in the narrative, that leave this reader anxious to know more details of what happened and why. Sometimes these holes remain unfilled. For instance, Williams describes an attempted murder of herself by a guard outside a courtroom in New York. The result of the attack was that Williams was arrested. The 200 plus pound guard received no charges. Williams does not follow-up this account with further details of why this happened. Perhaps it is obvious, and I am just being dense. Maybe this sort of thing happens all the time to middle aged African-American lawyers within the halls of American Justice. Perhaps, the details are simply not there to give. Williams was also involved in numerous other crucial efforts to bring true justice to poor and oppressed people, before and after Assata’s legal battles. Early in her career she helped place the two sons of Julus and Ethel Rosenberg with their surviving family members. Late in her career she tried to represent Solomon Brown who was arrested along with David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin in the October 20, 1981 Brinks armored car robbery. Brown was tortured by the police and FBI until broken and became a witness for the prosecution. Though sympathetic to his situation, Williams was forced to sever her relationship with her client once he began working with the FBI. According to Williams: “once a person collaborates with the FBI, for whatever reason – whether inducement, fear, or the hope of assistance – that person can never again be trusted”. Again and again Williams and her amazing family are in places where important events in the history of the movement to resist the evils of racism and imperialism unfold. She tells the story with compassion, passion and intelligence seldom found in something so dry as a “legal memoir”.

2006-06-22T00:46:00.000-07:00

The hornet’s nest of violence unleashed in Iraq by the Bush administration is a constant reminder of the not dissimilar mess the United States created in Vietnam just a few years ago. For this reason and others, I find myself drawn to the radical anti-American protests of that period. Likewise, the books I have been reading are almost exclusively memoirs and histories of the so-called sixties. I have already recommended Dan Berger’s “Outlaws of America”.

There are dozens of other books I could recommend. For now I would like to just mention a handful of the best of these. Stew Albert was an amazing and brilliant Yippie radical, a friend of and influence upon both Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Stew recently passed away. Jeffery St. Clair wrote an excellent obituary on his CounterPunch website. It was from that obit that I first heard about Stew’s amazing memoir “Who the Hell is Stew Albert?”. That was the book that started my trip down this current reading path. Some would say it is an obsession. If anyone wants to follow me on my obsessive trip, Stew Albert’s book is a good place to begin.

A similar and yet in some ways politically opposed memoir is William Blum’s excellent “West-Bloc Dissident”. Blum is best known for his two essential books of history, “Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II” and “Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower”. His memoir is much lighter, yet I think equally as important because it tells us how he became “Osama’s favorite historian”. Personally, I think Osama should read Ward Churchill, Ramsey Clark, Howard Zinn, Michael Linfield and Gore Vidal before he makes such a decision, but Blum is probably as good as any of them.

Yet another “sixties” memoir I strongly recommend is Bill Ayers’ “Fugitive Days”. With poetry, subtlety and warmth, Ayers describes his road to the Weather Underground and beyond. Bill Ayers is one of the most brilliant and still controversial of the original Weather leadership. How any sane person can read Ayers and come away thinking he is a terrorist is beyond my comprehension. As are many things.

David Gilbert is the Weatherman who still sits in jail today. Do not call what he is doing “rotting in prison” because he remains an active and vital force on the radical left. His book “No Surrender” is not a memoir, though that would be a book worth reading, no doubt. “No Surrender” is a collection of Gilbert’s writing on a variety of subjects. His intelligence and fierce humanity and decency come through with every sentence he writes. If there is one political prisoner who needs to be set free, and there are in fact quite a few more than one, it is David Gilbert. Until that happy day arrives, I strongly recommend his book to anyone who cares about humanity and the survival of the planet.

Finally, I want to recommend Jeremy Varon’s “Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies”. Though not as passionate as Dan Berger’s book on the WUO, Varon’s history of two radical anti-imperialist groups is necessary reading for anyone interested in understanding our recent history. His book is most chilling when he describes the wave of censorship that swept Germany in the mid-70’s in reaction to RAF violence. It is easy to see how the current rightwing government of the U.S. could move to this extreme. They are already pretty close. Here is a quote from Willy Brandt, a West German official, blasting what he calls the “sympathizers” or “sympathisanten”:

You are, it seems to me, even more responsible for the atrocities than the fanatics who pull the trigger of their automatic weapons. Why is that so? Without you, the assassins would be helpless. You furnish the stage set on which murderers appear as heroes… You provide the sustenance, equipment, and shelter without which the terrorists would have to abandon their absurd and bloody dreams of a civil war… What kind of people are you? You, who claim to be politically aware, don’t realize that you are doing the bidding of the darkest forces of reaction…

Does that sound familiar? This statement was followed by a wave of raids upon publishers and bookstores and leftist collectives. People spent years in jail for nothing more criminal than publishing newspapers. How far is this from the current “you are either with us or against us” rightwing political line? How close is this to the hatred O’Reilly and Limbaugh and their ilk spew daily on television and radio?

Varon is also good when he describes some details of the Weather Underground organization that Berger chose to not describe in much detail. In particular, I refer to the bizarre events of the “Flint War Council”, at which Bernardine Dohrn’s oft quoted Manson speech was given. I don’t criticize Berger for choosing to emphasize other aspects of the Weather Organization’s long history. Yet I am fascinated by those three mad days, which Varon describes at some length. I find myself wanting to know more, about this and other aspects of the Weather Underground and their many comrades.

There is much more to know, much more to read, as always. I hope to return to this subject soon.

2006-06-15T01:35:00.000-07:00

J.G. Ballard: High-Rise. Ballard is unique among 20th century British novelists. In each of his dystopian/fantasy tales (Nabokov would have called them romances) he creates a self-destroying world unto itself with its own odd rules and twisted realities. "High-Rise" is Ballard at his best, combining his early, edgy, pulp weather stories with his mature, late period style. Here he turns William Golding's fall-of-man morality tale on its head and ends up in the same fly-lord jungle. Mankind crawls from the primordial ooze to the sleak and shiny modernist tower of steel where he is a cartoon caveman in a post-postmod nightmare, dragging his woman by the hair, waving his club in the air, being all that he can be.

2006-06-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

The Adverts: Singles Compilation (Get Back L.P.) When I was 18 I thought the Adverts were a bunch of posers. Now that I am much older and not so wiser I know that I was right but who cares? That was sort of the whole point of the punk thing. Just look at their pictures on the cover of this new reissue. Those buttons and that skinny tie! You can tell that a week (or an hour) before they heard the Sex Pistols, they were probably doing Deep Purple covers. They do not even bother to cut their hair very short for the photo session, so as to keep an ace in the hole for when this punk thing blows over in a month or so. Despite my doubts (and theirs) these guys were one of the best of the original punks. Tom Zarrilli and David Lindsay used to play “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” on the King of Scholock show on WRFG! You do not get much more Quincy punk than that. Yet at the same time Karen Cook named her “real” punk rock show on WRAS, “Safety in Numbers”, after the B-side of the Adverts third 7”. All eight songs from side one (plus “Television’s Over” from side two) are perfect punk gems. These nine tunes are the band’s first four and one-half singles. I cannot think of many groups this side of Can capable of such consistency. The fact that the Adverts accomplished this over the course of a few months, does take away a bit from the Can comparison, but mentioning Can is another great punk tradition almost as hallowed as badly tied vintage neckties. One chord wonders indeed.

2006-05-13T03:52:00.000-07:00

Outlaws of America: Dan Berger. How can a book describing a political movement 30 years defunct seem relevant in the year 2006? Likewise, how can a leftist organization marginalized by the vast majority of the left at the peak of its power seem so on-point now that the left is at the nadir of its influence? How can a political philosophy described by one critic as kindergarten politics answer so many of the questions we fight in the midst of a 2nd term Christian-fascist American regime? These questions and many others are answered in this fascinating account of the sexiest, coolest and most important radical organization to emerge from the political revolution that was the 1960’s and that could be, maybe should be, now. The story of the Weather Underground is much too complex and subtle to begin to tell in an abbreviated form in the space of this paragraph. On the other hand, Dan Berger’s breathtakingly rich, well-researched account spares nothing. “Outlaws of America” is, thankfully a somewhat biased account, in favor of these young rebels, so many others have willingly dismissed as crazy or naive or simply wrong-headed. In addition to writing about the Weather Underground Organization, Berger edited (with Chesa Boudin and Kenyon Farrow) the very cool “Letters From Young Activists”, but “Outlaws of America” is a major accomplishment. At 432 pages it includes extensive notes, a bibliography, photographs, 21 helpful biographies of the interviewees, and a 20-page timeline of the 20th century radical movement leading up to the Weather movement and beyond. Not to mention the bulk of the text which closely documents nearly ten years of Weather activity and brings history into perspective with careful, smart analysis. Berger has produced a book, seemingly the work of a lifetime. He is in his twenties!

2006-04-29T02:57:00.000-07:00

M.F.K. Fisher: Serve It Forth. This little book was M(ary)F(rances) K(ennedy) Fisher's first. She would publish four more before her reputation caught up with her talent. Her precise, delicious prose takes the reader all over the palate. With just the right words, she touches upon the art of eating, the art of food, the art of the cookbook, the history of food writing, all things food. She knows and delights in everything there is to know about the subject. We learn how to starve a snail. We learn French-cooking was invented by the Italians. We learn that Romans used sugar only in medicine, never in food. We learn so much more necessary knowledge. Read this book (or any of her books) at the airport or waiting to have a tooth pulled, and Mary Frances' words take you someplace comfortable where the smells of baked bread and cinnamon waft through the air before a warm fireplace. Not that Fisher is limited to "comfort foods," whatever the heck that might be. She goes on at length about the beauty of the snail (though she will not abide by slugs!) She touches upon the consumption of locusts. She is never squeamish, but she remains, as W.H. Auden famously remarked, one of our best writers.

2006-04-29T02:45:00.000-07:00

Celine: Death on the Installment Plan "Mort a Credit," the book known in English as "Death on the Installment Plan" is Celine's "Remembrance of Things Past," a fictionalized autobiography, an invocation of memories set
off, not by the pleasant aroma of a cookie dipped in tea, but by a violent,
nauseous, hallucinatory, malarial fever. This often hilarious, by turns
disturbing, novel seems almost literally vomitted upon the page. The
difference between Proust and Louis-Ferdinand Celine (born Destouches) is
indicative of this not so pleasant French literary master. His famous
nihilism and misanthropy is blurred by his theme of compassion for the
impoverished, desperate individual. "Mort," his only novel where war is not a
major theme, ends with the protagonist's decision to join the army, to
escape the simple everyday horror of childhood. "Infinity opens just for
you, a laughable little infinity and you fall into it," but that comes later…

2006-04-16T01:44:00.000-07:00

Brooke Shields: "The Brooke Book" Long before JonBenet and the panic-driven backlash against child exploitation and pedophilia, long before our era of media as the first wall of defense for the sake of our children and "family values, " "moral values" and values for the sake of values, there was
Brooke. And Brooke was a mainstream kitsch pop phenomenon. Controversial as she was, she was, nonetheless, a covergirl of the month superstar of a sort
that simply could not exist in the America of today. Do not confuse Brooke
Shields with contemporary young adult celebrities like Britney Spears. As
this celebrity photo-biography clearly shows, Brooke was pretty much
sexualized moments after birth. "The Brooke Book" is a disturbing,
one-of-a-kind period piece we will not see again any time soon.

2006-04-16T01:30:00.000-07:00

1. James Joyce: Ulysses
2. Samuel Beckett: Murphy
3. Vladimer Nabokov: Pale Fire
4. Henry James: The Golden Bowl
5. Flann O’Brien: At Swim Two Birds
6. William Gaddis: The Recognition
7. Henry Green: Concluding
8. Ivy Compton Burnett: Bullivant and the Lambs
9. Ronald Firbank: Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Perelli
10. Evelyn Waugh: A Handful of Dust
11. Thomas Pynchon: Crying of Lot 49
12. Anthony Burgess: Inside Mr Enderby
13. Rex Warner: Aerodrome
14. Muriel Sparks: Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
15. Alexander Theroux: Darconville’s Cat
16. Alasdair Gray: Lanark
17. Martin Amis: Time’s Arrow
18. William Sansom: The Body
19. Virginia Woolf: The Waves
20. Graham Greene: Brighton Rock
21. William Golding: The Inheritors
22. L.P. Hartley: Facial Justice
23. Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye
24. William Gass: The Tunnel
25. Joyce Cary: The Horse’s Mouth
26. Joseph Conrad: Nostromo
27. Barbara Pym: Quartet in Autumn
28. Carl Van Vechten: Tatooed Countess
29. John Barth: Letters
30. Saul Bellow: The Victim
31. Jean Rhys: Quartet
32. Bernard Malamud: The Fixer
33. Ford Maddox Ford: The Good Soldier
34. P.G. Wodehouse: Summer Moonshine
35. Patricia Highsmith: Found in the Street
36. Hortense Calisher: The New Yorkers
37. J.G. Ballard: High Rise
38. Elizabeth Taylor: Mrs. Palfry at the Claremont
39. John Updike: The Coup
40. C.H.B. Kitchin: Streamers Waving
41. Brigid Brophy: In Transit
42. David Lodge: Nice Work
43. Iris Murdoch: Bells
44. Carson McCullers: Heart is a Lonely Hunter
45. Penelope Lively: Road to Lichfield
46. Don Dillello: White Noise
47. Elizabeth Bowen: Death of the Heart
48. Percival Everett: Erasure
49. John Collier: His Monkey Wife
50. George Orwell: 1984
51. Budd Schulberg: Disenchanted
52. Herbert Selby: The Room
53. Edward Upward: Journey to the Border
54. Cynthia Ozick: Messiah of Stockholm
55. Angela Thirkell: Brandons
56. Paul Bailey: At the Jerusalem
57. Aldous Huxley: Time Must Have a Stop
58. Angus Wilson: The Old Man at the Zoo
59. Kingsley Amis: One Fat Englishman
60. Raymond Federman: Take it or Leave it
61. Conrad Aiken: Blue Voyage
62. Malcolm Bradbury: Doctor Criminale
63. Penelope Fitzgerald: Blue Flower
64. Dashiel Hammett: The Glass Key
65. Flannery O’Conner: Wise Blood
66. Robert Graves: I Claudius
67. Rayner Heppenstall: Blaze of Noon
68. Christine Brooke-Rose: Xorandor
69. Lauren Van Der Post: Lost World of Kalahari
70. Dorothy Richardson: Pointed Roofs
71. Nancy Mitford: The Pursuit of Love
72. Philip Larkin: A Girl In Winter
73. Robert Nye: Falstaff
74. Lewis Grassic Gibbon: A Scots Quair
75. Rosamond Lehmann: The Weather in the Streets
76. William Faulkner: Soldier’s Pay
77. Kay Boyle: Plagued by the Nightingale
78. E.F. Benson: Mapp and Lucia
79. Djuna Barnes: Nightwood
80. Brian Aldiss: Barefoot in the Head
81. Paul Auster: City of Glass
82. Nicholson Baker: A Box of Matches
83. John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men
84. Molly Keane: Taking Chances
85. Elizabeth Hardwick: The Ghostly Lover
86. Dorothy Hughes: In a Lonely Place
87. Robert Liddell: The Last Enchantment
88. Giles Gordon: Pictures from an Exhibition
89. Ernest Gaines: A Lesson Before Dying
90. Olivia Manning: The Great Fortune
91. Salmon Rushdie: Midnight’s Children
92. Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan
93. Doris Lessing: The Good Notebook
94. T.F. Powys: Mr. Weston’s Good Wine
95. Richard Hughes: High Wind in Jamica
96. Ian McEwan: The Cement Garden
97. John Lehmann: Evil Was Abroad
98. James Kelman: How Late It Was, How Late
99. B.S. Johnson: Travelling People
100. Max Beerbolm: Zuleika Dobson

2006-04-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

Easturn Stars was a transgender-queer-lesbian-feminist-afro-american-revolutionary-anarchist-avant-pop-art & music micro-collective. Easturn Stars was a tiny crack in the armor of empire. Easturn Stars was a swelling, bleeding sore on the fat white ass of boring whitebread middle -American bad taste, packaged as good taste. Easturn Stars was so far ahead of its time, beyond its time and out of all time, that it will be decades before the rest of the world even starts to catch up. Easturn Stars was a beautiful thing. Crazed and crazy, totally, brilliantly and drunkenly, psychotically out of control, Easturn Stars could turn small, forgettable failures, tiny moments in the secret history of the counter-counter culture into enormous anti-artistic masterworks. One such moment, perhaps the greatest such moment ever was the moment (the second time in as many weeks to be historically correct) that they were unplugged after just a few songs during their “set” at the new wave club called 688 at 688 Spring Street in 1984. A pivotal year that was! 1984 was a year that still sounds like the dangerous dystopian future to my ears, yet it was a time of new things for the small movement Easturn Stars helped to create. Can we call it a movement without choking on the word? We cannot but what the heck! I know that somewhere in the heaven that he knew did not exist Benjamin is laughing his skinny white ass off and stumbling around among the clouds, a needle happily dangling from his vein saying "Glen you fucking loser, I can't believe you are still at it!" Cabbage and Roz and Lori and Kathleen and Benji warned us with their sweet & nasty songs about what was going down. They laid the foundation for dozens of small important things to follow. And they also told us what to do about it “We are fucking the land lord.” It was as simple and profound as that: fucking as an artistic, rebellious act. It still works today, a revolution of everyday life indeed. If those kids (forever kids they are) were with us in these believe it or not even worse times, they would be fucking the hell out of president Cheney. Don’t doubt it. And he would fucking love it. As Benjamin said with typical delightfully indecent, prescient brevity, clarity and charm “Don’t stop us now, my pussy is just beginning to itch.” Please don't stop them now or ever.

2006-03-17T01:20:00.000-08:00

1. Louis Armstrong: Best of the Hot Sevens and Hot Fives
2. Duke Ellington: Live at the Fargo
3. Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy and Dial Recordings
4. John Coltrane: Ascension
5. Ornette Coleman: Dancing In Your Head
6. The Velvet Underground: White Light White Heat
7. Jackie McLean: Freedom Ring
8. Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy
9. Captain Beefheart: Shiny Beast
10. John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band
11. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
12. Thelonious Monk: Brilliant Corners
13. Richard Hell & the Voidoids: Blank Generation
14. Jelly Roll Morton: 1923 - 1924
15. Can: Tago Mago
16. Charles Mingus: Black Saint and Sinner Lady
17. Derek Bailey: Solo Guitar Volume One
18. Anthology of American Folk Music
19. Bill Dixon: Opium/For Franz
20. Otis Redding: Dictionary of Soul
21. Cecil Taylor: Unit Structures
22. Television: Adventure
23. Chet Baker: Lonely Star
24. Lewis & Gilbert: Dome
25. Leonard Cohen: Songs of Love & Hate
26. The Kinks: Something Else
27. Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers (Columbia, 1961)
28. Sun Ra: Nothing Is
29. Sounds of New Music (Folkways 1958) with John Cage, Henry Cowell, Alexander Mossolov, Edgard Varese, etc
30. Sly & the Family Stone: There’s A Riot Going On
31. The Band: Music From Big Pink
32. Love: Forever Changes
33. Artie Shaw: 1939
34. No New York with DNA, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, the Contortions & Mars
35. Nico: Marble Index
36. The Beach Boys: Smiley Smile
37. Bob Dylan: Basement Tapes
38. Doc Watson: Doc Watson (Vanguard, 1964)
39. Al Green: Belle
40. New Sounds in Electronic Music (Odyssey, 1969) with Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, & Richard Maxfield
41. Pere Ubu: New Picnic Time
42. Wire: Pink Flag
43. The Stooges: Funhouse
44. Gram Parson: Grievous Angels
45. The Temptations: Anthology 1964-73 (Motown, 1973)
46. Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto
47. Frank Sinatra: Portrait of Sinatra – Columbia Classics
48. Albert Ayler Trio: Spiritual Unity
49. The Rolling Stones: Exile On Main Street
50. Frank Wright: Trio
51. Ella Fitzgerald: The Cole Porter Songbook
52. The Beatles: Second Album
53. Van Morrison: Astral Weeks
54. Ann Peebles: Greatest Hits
55. The Fall: Hex Enduction Hour
56. Einsturzende Neubauten: Kollapse
57. Patti Smith: Horses
58. Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced?
59. Gil Evans Orchestra: Into the Hot
60. Syd Barrett: The Madcap Laughs
61. Stephane Grappelli: Grappelli Story
62. Talking Heads: Talking Heads 77
63. Howlin’ Wolf: Moanin’ in the Moonlight
64. Count Basie: The Original American Decca Recordings
65. Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth
66. David Bowie: Hunky Dory
67. Django Reinhardt: Classic Early Recordings
68. Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus
69. Hank Williams: I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time
70. Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombone
71. Joe Tex: I Believe I’m Gonna Make It – The Best of Joe Tex, 1964-1972 (Rhino, 1988)
72. The Byrds: Fifth Dimension
73. Big Star: 3rd
74. The Modern Lovers: The Modern Lovers
75. Ray Charles: Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
76. The Clash: The Clash
77. Leadbelly: Leadbelly’s Last Sessions Vol. 2 (Folkways, 1953)
78. Swell Maps: A Trip to Marineville
79. Cat Power: The Covers Record
80. Rocket from the Tombs: The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs
81. Glenn Branca: The Ascension
82. The Ramones: Leave Home
83. Willie Nelson: Yesterday’s Wine
84. Buffalo Springfield: Again
85. Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks
86. Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul
87. Jerry Lee Lewis: Original Golden Hits – Volume One
88. The Birthday Party: Prayers On Fire
89. Them: Them
90. Flying Burrito Brothers: The Gilded Palace of Sins
91. The Scene Is Now: Total Jive
92. Pink Floyd: Saucerful of Secrets
93. Mekons: Quality of Mercy is not Strnen
94. Sonic Youth: Confusion is Sex
95. Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead
96. Oscar Peterson Trio: West Side Story
97. Roxy Music: For Your Pleasure
98. The Doors: L.A. Woman
99. Tom T. Hall: Greatest Hits Volume III

2006-03-17T00:32:00.000-08:00

John Sinclair: ”Guitar Army”. John Sinclair is one of those peripheral intellectual figures lingering near a raw, maybe not so bright bunch of rock 'n' rollers, infusing the band with style and rhetoric. The Stones had Andrew Oldham. The Beatles had Brian Epstein. The Sex Pistols had Malcolm McLaren. Detroit's loud, jazz-bent MC5 had John Sinclair. He was a fiery, brazenly radical figure who scared the hell out of the boring silent majority types, and Sinclair paid the price: "ten for two." That's ten years for two joints. This is a collection of his Lenny Bruce/Kerouac/Marx inspired writings from before and during his stint in prison. Printed on a rainbow array of stocks, illustrated with great cartoons, photos and posters, "Guitar Army" captures the Detroit proto-punk era of the Stooges, the White Panther Party and “Creem” magazine like nothing else can or could. "Play loud!"

2006-03-06T06:31:00.000-08:00

"50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed To Know": Mickey Z. Mickey Z is a self-taught, blog-made historian of the new terrible America of the 21st century. Osama’s favorite historian William Blum says Mickey writes history for “Americans who have lots of holes in the head about their country’s behavior”. This latest book should appeal to a quite different group of Americans, those with the spirit of revolution upon which this country was founded, who don’t quite know what to do with that spirit. To cut and run, as president W would say, though not from Iraq, but from the United States itself, is not the answer. To stay and do something about it, that is the answer Mickey proposes. Cobbled together from the day to day dialogue of Mickey’s own weblog this small, handsome book is an inspiring collection of short essays from America’s social, political and artistic history, little big moments that make this country great despite the enormous amount of evidence you can read elsewhere in other books by Blum, Howard Zinn, and Ramsey Clark. This is the America we want to believe in and love and pass on to our children, the America of Daniel Ellsberg’s leak, of Lenny Bruce’s foul mouth, of Rachel Carson groundbreaking book, of Patti Smith’s rock n roll nigger, of Charles Bukowski’s job at the Post Office, of Thomas Paine and the Bill of Rights, that America, the real America.

"The War on Truth: 9-11, Disinformation, and the Anatomy of Terrorism": Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed. This latest book by Ahmed is both a follow-up and expansion upon his 2002 work, “The War on Freedom: How & Why America Was Attacked, September 11, 2001.” It is part of and benefits from a small cottage industry of similar works by David Ray Griffin, Jim Marrs, Michel Chossudovsky and Thierry Meyssan. He is both the first and latest author to challenge the mainstream account of what happened on that horrible day and what events led to the attacks. Ahmed finds numerous holes in the standard account and offers an alternative narrative. Conspiracy theory? Perhaps. Pray that is all this story is because it rings true more often than not. If you have your own doubts or you love this country enough to want to save it or hate this country enough to laugh at it duplicitous fall, read Ahmed’s terrifying book.

2006-03-05T02:26:00.000-08:00

1. "Dylan’s Vision of Sin": Christopher Ricks. As soon as critics began to take rock music seriously, critics began calling Bob Dylan a poet, and critics started taking rock music seriously at about the same moment that critics first heard Bob Dylan. Problem is or was it always seemed like kind of a bad joke. Dylan was just a rock n roll guy, right? He was a guitar slinger, a streetwise songster with the voice from hell that could take you to heaven. Not so fast. Christopher Ricks is one of our most learned men of letters, a true critic of the stature of Kermode or Kenner or Harold Bloom, an impeccable scholar. In this 500-page masterwork Ricks brings to the works and words of Dylan all the gravity he has previously employed to bring light upon such masters as Keats, Beckett, Tennyson, Eliot and Milton. In so doing, he puts an end to the argument about whether or not Dylan is a poet and simultaneously brings Dylan closer to being a poet of the status of Keats etc. How can there be any doubt?

2. "On the Justice of Roosting Chickens": Ward Churchill. Churchill rips into American history with the passion of an avant-garde artist or a punk rock guitarist. He tells the story of an America most Americans have not heard. Certainly they did not read about it in school. The United States he writes about is a corrupt cannibalistic empire of greed without end. His work is carefully researched and endlessly referenced but never dull. This recent title is one of dozens of his anti-colonial histories; yet it is the one that contains the essay that resulted in his name being tossed to the dogs of the demagogic right, that ugly vast conspiracy that becomes so obviously real everyday to those of us who worry about such things. This book is also perhaps not coincidentally one of his best collections yet. Read it while you still can.

3."What’s My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States": Dave Zirin. In the America of today sports and sports reporting has become the narcotic of the masses, the barbiturate of middle class America that keeps most of us from thinking about, well, much of anything. Under the pen of Dave Zirin sports becomes something quite different. He writes regularly in places such as Alexander Cockburn’s Counterpunch website, about sports from a decidedly radical point of view. In this new collection of essays, Zirin finds the great moments in the history of 20th century sport, moments when someone stood up and mattered, most picturesquely when Tommie Smith and John Carlos lowered their eyes and raised their black gloved fists during the national anthem at the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City. As a nine year old I remember two things when this event made the newspapers the next day. I remember my Republican parents saying it was shameful and un-American and worse. And I remember thinking how very cool that picture looked. I cared nothing for Olympic sports. I knew nothing of the civil rights movement or the anti-war protests then sweeping the country and the globe, but I recognized something important and exciting in that image, something that stuck. Zirin looks for such moments, and finds them in such places and people as Jackie Robinson breaking the color line in baseball and Muhammad Ali doing just about anything when he was young and exciting and “the greatest”, not the readily acceptable and pitiable figure he has become. This is the sports book everyone should read if they only read one sports book or if they’ve read hundreds.

4. Encyclopoaedia Anatomica. These disturbing images are the art of the pathological, forensic sexuality, plastic erotica, sick shit. The boy next door, serial killer to be, at the breaking point, on the way to his first capital crime might well see these pictures flash before his eyes. Beyond hope, past redemption, our boy on the brink perhaps finds comfort in these tasty freeze frames. The rest of us can only wonder at their strange horrible beauty, their graceful perversity.

5. Losing Moses on the Freeway: Chris Hedges. Hedges writes about the 10 Commandments of Moses in a way that makes them vital and necessary, not as the fodder for the rightwing war against the secular left, not as a weapon in the leftwing fight for the separation of church and state, but as something real and moral in the best sense of the word. Even for someone not the least interested in organized religion or spirituality, Hedges strikes a chord. His sense of “moral values” is more than the cliché of a media campaign. For Hedges moral values are as real as war is ugly and politicians are corrupt. He shows how these ancient laws that exist in one form or another in all the major world religions, should and do remain a part of everyday life in this seemingly amoral contemporary moment that we are living.