Klonopin, Damn You to Hell: Top Five Psychotropic Medications to Add to Tap Water

By Emily Carney

A Japanese study has shown that adding the salt known as lithium to drinking water may supposedly reduce the incidence of suicides. Lithium has been used typically to stabilize bipolar disorder. This finding brings up the question: is it okay for the government to add psychotropic medications to drinking water, very much like fluoride was added to stop teeth from rotting? The idea is a bit frightening, given that most psychotropic medications possess a laundry list of wickedly bad side effects. I was inspired (being a veteran of various psychiatric medications, woot!) to imagine a world in which these meds were added to drinking water. However, I compartmentalized my thinking about tap water to several specific drugs. . . enjoy!
Continue reading ‘Klonopin, Damn You to Hell: Top Five Psychotropic Medications to Add to Tap Water’

Soundtrack For The Perfect Girl

By Jim R. Clark

Why do you insist on listening to music that you don’t even like? Is it because you’re afraid what the others will think of you? Them, and their damned taste police. No? Well, I know the real reason. Really, I do. Listen, I’m going to tell you what’s going on inside your head. Consider this a free counseling session.
Continue reading ‘Soundtrack For The Perfect Girl’

Cheap Trick, The Latest

By Less Lee Moore

I haven’t bought a new Cheap Trick album since their 1997 self-titled release on the then soon-to-be-defunct Red Ant label. Now that I’ve copped to this embarrassing admission, the next one should be easier. I hate writing record reviews. That old chestnut comparing the ridiculousness of music writing to “dancing about architecture” worms its way into my brain and I start to panic. Panic turns to dread as deadlines quickly approach.

Look, it’s not that I don’t love the latest release from Cheap Trick (cleverly titled The Latest), it’s that I don’t know if I can properly convey how much I love it, or perhaps more succinctly, I don’t know if I can convince you to love it as much as I do.
Continue reading ‘Cheap Trick, The Latest‘

Foetus, Limb

By Less Lee Moore

For a discussion of the design elements of the 48-page Limb booklet, please read Ann Clarke’s review here.

For a discussion of the Foetus NYC documentary, please read my review here.

Those fans introduced to JG Thirlwell via The Venture Bros. might be surprised (or perhaps confused) by the unique listening experience that Limb, the new Foetus release, provides. If you already knew about the avant garde and experimental reference points which inspired the pieces on Limb, you’ll likely have a different perspective on it than I do. So I’m not going to front and tell you I was intimately familiar with Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and John Cage before I heard this album.
Continue reading ‘Foetus, Limb‘

Pink Martini For A Blue Girl

By Chelsea Spear

Opera House, Boston MA
June 13, 2009

“Eclectic” doesn’t begin to describe the music of Pink Martini. For the better part of a decade, this twelve-piece “little big band” has beguiled indie hipsters, polyglots, blue-haired grannies, and NPR junkies alike with their interpretations of standards from America and around the world. Likewise, the original songs that appear on their albums draw inspiration from French poetry, transcendental literature, songs from beloved 1970s movies, and bad dates.
Continue reading ‘Pink Martini For A Blue Girl’

On Memories And Michael Jackson

It would be absurd to have a magazine devoted to pop culture and fandom and not have something to say about Michael Jackson. The man contributed so much to our culture that we were often unaware of references to him. Upon his death, these references we had seen before somehow became more poignant: a zombie character in a video game wearing a red jacket and walking backwards used to be a funny homage, worthy of a chuckle. Today that same image evokes emotions on top of that, as we realize it as a caricature of a man we never fully understood, even if we did love his work.
Continue reading ‘On Memories And Michael Jackson’

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey, Here and Now

By Less Lee Moore

It’s been 17 years since Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey recorded an album together. The first time it was the Mavericks album in 1992 and as Holsapple notes, “[It] was recorded and mixed in one fell swoop; this one took a couple years and a hurricane to complete.”
Continue reading ‘Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey, Here and Now‘

The Reproductive Olympics: How Television Guilts Women Into Motherhood

By Emily Carney

I am, at the time of writing this, in my early thirties, and I am enjoying a relatively snag-free life of teaching and writing. I happen to also be married to someone I have known for much of my adult life. However, to some people, these things are completely inconsequential.

Whenever I see people from my past, or even when I meet them for the first time, the topic eventually turns to: When are you having kids? I sheepishly attempt to steer the topic in another direction, but usually to no avail.
Continue reading ‘The Reproductive Olympics: How Television Guilts Women Into Motherhood’

One Sweaty Show: Yeah Yeah Yeahs with Grand Ole Party

By J Howell

Beaumont Club, Kansas City MO
June 3, 2009

Ah, summer. Some things go hand in hand with the onset of summer: sunny days, lemonade, box-office blockbusters, and rock shows. OK, maybe summer isn’t really all that much more conducive to rock shows than any other particular season, but in any event, summer is conducive to being out and about and enjoying live music.

Grand Ole Party and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were a bit like a typical summer movie—a thrilling, if not quite profound, way to spend a couple of hours on a gorgeous evening.
Continue reading ‘One Sweaty Show: Yeah Yeah Yeahs with Grand Ole Party’

Flying Lizards, Fourth Wall

By Matt Keeley

The title of the most important (only?) Flying Lizards fan page is “They Were a Very Different Band,” which sounds about right. They’re most famous for their deconstructed cover of “Money,” featuring a disaffected, posh-sounding English woman demanding money while speaking the lyrics over prepared piano and the sound of a bass guitar being hit with a stick. The single was recorded for a grand total of 26 pounds. Basically, the band wasn’t ever meant to be a band.
Continue reading ‘Flying Lizards, Fourth Wall‘