// Category Archive for: Music

My One-Night Stand With Kevin Ayers

By Hanna

Ayers, Nico, Cale, Eno

Kevin Ayers, both as a member of Soft Machine and as a solo artist, is one of the most respected musicians alive today. Because of his easy-going good-humor and extensive back catalogue of avant garde music, he has been revered by music lovers for decades. Similarly, his collaborations demand respect and admiration, and confirm his position as a mainstay of what is considered intelligent music. His work with John Cale, Andy Summers, Ollie Halsall, and Mike Oldfield are examples of his eminent good taste in other music as well as his own.
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Urge Overlooked

By Michael Row

There was once a band from Hawthorne, California called REDD KROSS. Ever hear of them?? They were this wildly fun & funny punk/pop/rock group who dug CHEAP TRICK a heck of a lot. And they liked to get dressed up. Oh man, did they ever.
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Married and Buried: Punk As A Four-Letter Word, Part One

By Less Lee Moore

When others become misty-eyed with nineties nostalgia, I never know what to say. I’ve often felt like my memories of the decade are far removed from theirs. Although I liked some of the so-called “grunge” music, I resented the media co-opting of the word in an attempt to cash in on youth culture. It’s only recently that I started to feel like I may have been more attuned to the zeitgeist than I realized.

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The Death of the Mix

By Christian Lipski

Photo © Richard Jones

I used to make mix tapes all the time when I was growing up. I liked the idea of creating a single object or concept by combining existing songs, like making a quilt or a collage. When I was done, the tape was to be taken as a cohesive whole, not as individual tracks; that was the ultimate goal.

When recordable CDs became affordable, I was excited to begin a new phase in mix-making. CDs were more durable than cassettes after all, and computer software would allow you to assemble mixes even more efficiently than before. Or so I thought. It’s true that sound-editing programs provide the ability to make creative, cleaner-sounding mixes, but the flip side is that now there are too many possibilities, and that has killed the mix for me.
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Top Five Ticket Stubs

By Less Lee Moore

Like many hardcore fangirls, I collect memorabilia relating to my obsessions. I try to remain unfazed by the remarkable similarities between my collector habits and those of serial killers, and concentrate instead on the tenacity of spirit that such pack-rat-edness surely exemplifies.

There are many bands and movies I’ve seen more than once. Now I’ll take you on a pictorial journey through my favorite collections of multiple ticket stubs.
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Won’t Someone Please Think of the Children?: Tiny Tim’s Christmas Album

By Hanna

The first reaction most people have when confronted with the reality of Tiny Tim, in song and especially video form, is “That’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.” Or simply speechless horror. Imagine my glee when I found out he’d made a Christmas album. Fun for traumatizing all the family!
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Band Names Are A Con: The Flaming Lips

By Adam McIntyre

Grunge wasn’t weird enough for us. I mean, the awesome rock power of those hairy flannel people was a little hard to deny but really, they were making music for someone else. My friends and I had backwoods families, didn’t use drugs, and had absolutely nothing to do. We were fifteen. It was more likely that we’d break into someone’s house to use the phone than steal something.
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Q & A with Bedtime for Toys

Interviewed by Lisa Haviland (via email)

Close your eyes; beddy bye, tin soldier.
Mommy says that it’s time for sleep.
If my folks were wiser and older,
They’d know kids and toys don’t need sleep.

Don’t be bad little cotton dolly.
See how nice Mickey Mouse sleeps now?
Even my brass drummer boy has stopped all his noise,
‘Cause he knows it’s past bedtime for toys.
Stevie Wonder, “Bedtime for Toys”

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“DEVO SUCKS—DIE”

By Christian Lipski

Can you really cut someone in half with a shotgun? I mean, would the blast (assuming both barrels) really sever all the bone and muscle and those other bits all at once, or would it at best just put a wet, meaty hole in your midsection only big enough to push a lunchbox through?
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Bedknobs and Broomsticks and That’s Not All: Lovedolls Superstar (Fully Realized) DVD

By Less Lee Moore

“Kelly Osbourne! She wasn’t even born yet. But her look was.”
—Redd Kross’ Jeff McDonald in the commentary to Lovedolls Superstar

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