Nonconsensual Fandom

By Jessica Melusine

Even in this age where the geeks seem to rule the earth, where pop culture analysis has jumped out of its academic setting to blogs and Wikipedia, where suddenly everyone now gets a red shirt joke, there are taste police. Even in a culture that is supposed to be tolerant there are issues about how one is supposed to watch, consume, or behave in fan culture.

I call this trend Nonconsensual Fandom.
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The Minutemen, Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat

By Jimmy Ether

It’s difficult for me to fully express the effect that the Minutemen had on me. “Life changing” may seem over-dramatic, but it would not be inaccurate. They were the ultimate underground band. A perfect blend of outrage, respect, art, sweat, and brotherly love. They never fit the hardcore genre into which they have been historically placed. They were not about aggression, rebellion, and noise. They were blatant self-expression and open-mindedness. They projected a very conceptualized vision of what a free, musical lifestyle meant. . . zen and the art of “the spiel.” They dabbled in self-mythology while remaining entirely modest everymen from blue-collar San Pedro, California.

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Summer Music Shorts

By Lisa Haviland
I still get a buzz every time I hear the opening hiss of “Ahhh, push it,” and here I am livin’ in Salt ‘n Pepa’s borough of Queens, New York, twenty years after “Push It” rode the Top 40. Though the track came out in December of 1987, I still associate it with summer; it’s too raucous ‘n wild for winter or the indoors. A friend and I blasted it around the neighborhood during the summer of ’88, far from the parents, though there was the inevitable awkward question from her younger brother as to the song’s meaning: “Ah, they mean push the shopping cart,” an item we happened to have commandeered and also the closest we’d come to pushing “it” at our delicate young ages.
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Jonathan Coulton Feels Fantastic

Lula Loungue, Toronto ON
July 9, 2008

By Megashaun

The Lula Lounge in Toronto isn’t your typical rock show venue, but then again, Jonathan Coulton isn’t your typical rock star. The man has made a name for himself via Internet superstardom. He’s just a dude, really. No fat record company executive pushing him around, telling him what to play or what to look like. No. He’s just a former database programmer and Yale graduate who turned to making a living by making music. In what used to be part of his kitchen.
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No Shame In Flamboyance: An Interview With Gere Fennelly

Interviewed by Less Lee Moore

One of the coolest live performances I ever saw was in Dallas TX in 1993. Redd Kross was playing with a bunch of other bands (including pre-indie-cred Nick Heyward from Haircut 100) for the Live 105 Acoustic Christmas.

For their cover of PJ Harvey’s “Oh My Lover,” keyboard player and pianist extraordinaire Gere Fennelly performed the song on a baby grand, with singer Jeff McDonald dramatically sprawled on top of it.

Although she left Redd Kross soon after to concentrate on other pursuits, that amazing flair for theatricality and humor still infuses everything she does.
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Glitter and Doom: Tom Waits

Fox Theatre, St. Louis MO
June 26, 2008

By J Howell

Despite Tom Waits’ assured permanent status on my short list of heroes, I have mixed emotions about the St. Louis Glitter and Doom show. It’s not that it wasn’t awesome; I’m pretty sure that Mr. Waits is quite incapable of playing a bad show at this point. It’s not that his band was less than aces; they were, to a man, amazing musicians. . .
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The First Synthpop Song, Part One

By Less Lee Moore

Read Part Two here.
Read Part Three here.

Although I usually consider the search for the Pop Culture Holy Grail to be a quest for a tangible object, this time around it was something more esoteric.
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Jane’s Addiction, Nothing’s Shocking

By Christian Lipski

Nothing’s Shocking is a great example of an album that I liked more for the individual statement that those specific songs made than the band itself. I didn’t really follow Jane’s Addiction after their debut, and I never felt sad about that. What I do feel sad about is that I looked on my iPod and I do not have this album on it. Okay now I do.
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Adventures with Metal Mania: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

By Ann Clarke

I recently re-subscribed to cable TV after a three-year hiatus. There is crap on TV that I am completely out of touch with, but that’s probably a good thing. In that three-year break, I didn’t pull that shit where people claim to only “read books” just so they can one-up the rest of the world. That’s just as bad as the douchebag that watches Ultimate Fighting Championship.
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They Are All, So Don’t Even Try: NXNE 2008 with Redd Kross

By Less Lee Moore

You have to understand. . .

There are things that I look forward to, things that I get excited about, and things that I Live For. Redd Kross is one of the latter.
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