// Category Archive for: Issues

Stank!

By Ann Clarke

I have compiled a top five list of the worst smells I have ever observed in my lifetime. Granted, this is a short list, and I’ve inhaled some really pungent stench over the years, but these are the ones that I will NEVER forget (no matter how much I’d like to!). These are ranked from bad, to the absolute worst!
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The Cramps, Smell Of Female

By Christian Lipski

“Ladies and Gentlemen, live from the Peppermint Lounge, The Cramps”
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The Scent Of Memories

By Less Lee Moore

Music can evoke memories so intense that it can be painful to listen; the feelings linger long after the needle leaves the turntable. But scents are more primal, often both more and less specific. So what do memories smell like?

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I’d Just As Soon Stay Sick: A Tribute To Lux Interior and The Cramps

By Millie De Chirico

As a kid growing up on the outskirts of Atlanta, GA, our family had a real love/hate relationship with cable television. My parents would fluctuate between not being able to live without cable and deeming it a waste of money. Even worse: our family did not have cable when I was in middle school, which was the age where I began to really get into music, wanting to watch MTV and Night Flight constantly. It was a pretty soul shattering time, to say the least.
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In Defense Of Harvey Dent

By Lisa Anderson

Okay—it’s all over, including the shouting. The late Heath Ledger won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor of 2008, after winning numerous other awards in the same category. I was rooting for someone else for Oscar, but I don’t begrudge Heath his award. That said, I don’t think that Heath made The Dark Knight what it was by himself.
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Disliking Influence: Q & A with Robert Görl of DAF

Interviewed by Emily Carney

DAF, 1980
From Verschwende deine Jugend

In the late 1970s, post-punk music in Düsseldorf, Germany began to mutate into sounds which were original, energetic, and exciting. Fired up by the music coming from England (and somewhat inspired by more electronic sounds, like Düsseldorf’s own Kraftwerk), one band called Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF) began to synthesize a sound which wasn’t quite rock, wasn’t quite disco, but was innovative and unusual enough to earn them the future sobriquet as the “fathers of EBM” (electronic body music). DAF were the central figures in the musical Neue Deutsche Welle movement (German New Wave, or simply abbreviated as NDW).
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Do It Again: Cover Versions Which Should Happen

By Emily Carney

5. Billy Joel’s “Big Shot,” performed by Ben Folds

Billy Joel

I have the most beautiful older sister. She related to me that when she was in high school during the 1980s, many famous pop solo artists tended to be older people, like Elton John or Billy Joel. She told me the most hilarious story about a bunch of teenage girls in her gym class shrieking over seeing Billy Joel in concert. I find it hard to believe any teenage girl would get physically excited over seeing Billy Joel live in concert. . . but hey, we all have different tastes.
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That Cupboard Smell

By Sandy

While filling out my answers to one of the Facebook memes (I know, I know), I was forced to admit the ultimate truth about myself: I am a weirdo. Maybe I could just say that I’m very picky, but when my fiancé Chris is yelling at me for rinsing a dish that’s already clean, is that “very picky bordering on levels of weirdness?”
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She Put A Record On: An Interview With Gudrun Gut

Interviewed by Julie Finley

Gudrun Gut isn’t a household name (not in North America, anyway). You’re not going to hear her on any Top 40 radio stations, but you might hear her whilst shopping in those bath and body stores called The Body Shop (true story, I actually heard a song of hers whilst shopping in there). However, her level of North American obscurity doesn’t make her any less important.
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Oren Lavie, The Opposite Side of the Sea

By Chelsea Spear

In the early days of 2009, the Internet became aware of Oren Lavie. The video for “Her Morning Elegance,” the album’s opening track and first single, was auspiciously posted on YouTube, and was subsequently linked on individual blogs and websites (like the group blog MetaFilter.com) with great enthusiasm. As Lavie’s catchy melody burbled along, a narrative of dreams and unrequited love unfolded in appropriately elegant, yet painstaking stop-motion animation. The album’s sales figures at online retailers increased faster than you can say, “YouTube embed.”
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