ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: Back in the day, Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer and Nick Tosches formed a terrible triumvirate of rowdy, hard-living rock scribblers — angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of rock — feared and loathed by the music industry’s power elite. They didn’t just write about rock ‘n’ roll; he lived it, drank it, smoked it, felt it up, snorted it down and puked it up all over the page the morning after. BOING BOING: So what an incredible thrill it was to come across a 90-minute interview with Lester […]
It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
NEW YORK TIMES: Forgotten except by the most fervent punk rock record collectors — the band’s self-released 1976 single recently traded hands for the equivalent of $800 — Death would likely have remained lost in obscurity if not for the discovery last year of a 1974 demo tape in Bobby Sr.’s attic. Released last month by Drag City Records as “… For the Whole World to See,” Death’s newly unearthed recordings reveal a remarkable missing link between the high-energy hard rock of Detroit bands like the Stooges and MC5 from the late 1960s and early ’70s and the high-velocity assault […]
Khyber Pass Scion Was International Man Of Danger
INQUIRER: One June day in 1988, customs agents at the Frankfurt, Germany, airport pulled aside an intense and striking young man waiting to get on a plane back home to Philadelphia. They suspected he had heroin in his suitcase. They were right — two kilos’ worth from Pakistan, hidden under a false bottom. He wasn’t tough to crack: Before the day was out, Daood “David” Gilani decided to save his own skin, agreeing to betray his drug-dealing partners by helping U.S. drug agents set up a sting. It was the beginning of a complicated, off-and-on relationship as a confidential informant […]
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIV: Down The Shore
WARNING: Audio NSFW MONICA YANT KINNEY: Did Andy Warhol have Jersey Shore in mind when he predicted that “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”? That was around 1968, before cable provided a forum for the classless masses to share their special gifts. It’s easy to argue that these playas are acting. In her Jersey Shore introduction, cast member Angelina even compared herself to reality royalty, bragging that “I’m the Kim Kardashian of Staten Island.” And yet every drunk Guidette scarfing Cool Ranch Doritos after an evening of videotaped humiliation was once someone’s little girl. In ranchers […]
NPR FOR THE DEF: Q&A With Nick Spitzer, Professor Of American Boogie & Host Of NPR’s American Routes
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA Nick Spitzer is a folkorist, ethnographer, professor of American Studies at Tulane University and host of the altogether wonderful American Routes — which can be heard locally on WHYY from 2-4 PM on Saturdays and 4-6 PM on Sundays — a heady Creole gumbo of blues, folk, soul, rock and Cajun stylings. Each week Nick scours the highways and the byways, the juke joints and roadhouses, the coffeehouses and corner bars, of these United States to map the crazy quilt patchwork of regional flavors, customs and musics to, in effect, create an audio […]
RUSH TO JUDGEMENT: Judge Rules That De-Funding Of ACORN By Congress Was Unconstitutional
GLENN GREENWALD: Yesterday, in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Federal District Judge Nina Gershon of the Eastern District of New York found Congress’ de-funding of ACORN unconstitutional and enjoined its enforcement. This is a major victory not only for ACORN, but also for the Constitution. Judge Gershon’s opinion is a model of careful and dispassionate judicial reasoning. Rejecting the DOJ’s claim that Congress had merely exercised its funding discretion rather than “punished” ACORN, the court wrote: “Wholly apart from the vociferous comments by various members of Congress as to ACORN’s criminality and fraud . . . […]
ANSWER: Is That All There Is To An Iverson Bounce?
INQUIRER: On Wednesday night, for the game after Allen Iverson’s emotional return, the energy at the Wachovia Center regressed to pre-Iverson levels. On Monday, a sold-out crowd of 20,664 packed the arena for Iverson’s “debut.” Two nights later, 12,136 people watched the Detroit Pistons beat the Sixers, 90-86 — a difference of 8,528. Iverson’s effectiveness dropped, too. He scored 11 points both nights, but on Wednesday, he had six turnovers and performed as he had warned, needing to knock the dust off. When the Sixers signed Iverson, their losing streak was at eight games. Since then, they have played three […]
SMOKE FAIRIES: Living With Ghosts
MOJO: Smoke Fairies, Britain’s sisterly purveyors of haunted folk blues, have recorded two new songs with their new biggest fan, Jack White. The tracks, Gastown and River Song, were recorded at White’s Nashville HQ and will appear on the Dead Weather man’s Third Man Records this week. White contributed guitar and drums to both songs. MORE
OPEN LETTER: To Liam Gallagher
BY JAMIE DAVIS So you’re in a band with your brother. He writes all the songs, epic earth-shattering tunes that change the face of pop-music, and you sing them. Your immense sibling rivalry takes its toll, your brother leaves the band because you’re an idiot, rejoins, leaves, rejoins, leaves, rinses and repeats. All the while your voice is only getting worse and worse, along with your brother’s songs. However throughout it all, you keep up this ridiculous front of being in the best band in the world, even years after your prime. People put up with it because “Wonderwall” is […]
WORTH REPEATING: Of War And Peace
BARACK OBAMA: I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war. What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require the same vision, hard work, and persistence of those men and women who acted so boldly decades ago. And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace. We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations — acting individually or in concert — will […]
RIP: Public Option Taken Off Life Support
HUFFINGTON POST: The public health insurance option died on Thursday, December 10, 2009, after a months-long struggle with Senate parliamentary procedure. The time of death was recorded as 11:12 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Its death had been rumored numerous times over the past year, but the public option repeatedly and defiantly battled back. The Senate’s insistence on 60 votes, combined with President Obama’s decision not to intervene on its behalf, eventually proved overwhelming. The public option leaves behind a Medicare buy-in for people aged 55-64, an expansion of Medicaid, a quasi-public option for those under 300 percent of the poverty […]
NEWSPAPER DEATHWATCH: E&P Ceases Publication
LOS ANGELES TIMES: For journalists, finding out that Editor & Publisher magazine is being shut down is a bit like discovering that a friend who’s a professional daredevil was killed in an accident onstage. It’s risky enough to be in the journalism business these days, and E&P doubled down on that bet: It was a magazine about newspapers. Now, its reporters and editors (for the print and online editions) will experience firsthand the disruption they’ve been chronicling for more than a decade. It appears that they received three weeks’ notice. E&P has been around since 1901, but it apparently grew […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]