I was never one for rave culture. To me the notion of spending the 1990’s listening to repetitive music, in rooms that is an abandoned warehouse by day, surrounded by drug-dropping drama queens is akin to a ten-year root canal. But after watching HIGH ON HOPE, I’m able to see where my theory is flawed.…
When we come to know something as an institution, the temptation is not to tinker with it. After all, the very nature of an institution is something that is steady…lasting…constant. The problem with that line of thinking is that those steady, constant ideas can find themselves irrelevant if they don’t adapt. Institutions can be as…
Jay Reatard is a hard person to sum up in so many words. There’s a lot about him that seems warm, forthcoming and joyful. On the other hand there are things that he’s done that make him seem maladjusted, standoffish, or an outright jerk. The truth is somewhere in between and it seems to be…
In rock & roll, there are stories, and there are legends. Then there are the details surrounding The Rolling Stones’ recording of “Exile On Main Street”…which deserves a whole category all its own. This year has brought a remastered version of the album, and with it, a well-executed documentary, STONES IN EXILE. The songs of…
At the risk of being ex-communicated from my hometown, I have a confession: I’ve never been a fan of Broken Social Scene. It’s hard to explain precisely why, except to say that I just didn’t get them. Their sound is sprawling, spiralling, and non-linear. They couldn’t care less about hooks or singles. Quite honestly, they…
Despite playing things straight down the middle, SEARCH AND DESTROY is a pretty interesting watch. The reason for this is to hear how Iggy Pop can effortlessly deconstruct the tracks on The Stooges’ landmark album “Raw Power”. The music might seem like four guys making a fast-paced racket, but the fact that the racket is…
Rock & roll is both vicious and ridiculous. It’s vicious in its dark undertones that permeate through the chord changes and vile words that have long been called The Devil’s Music. This darkness doesn’t just get prophesied to thousands of worshipping fans, it becomes ingrained into the very musicians chiming it out from their instruments.…
