The Muses Choose Broken Vessels

The Secret History of Rock n' Roll was a situation in which I told the editors I needed at least 100-120K words and if I didn't get it the book would suffer for it. 

Marshall Stacks & Rayon Slacks: 1979's Disco-Rock Dionysians

 

1979 was a liminal year, so it's only appropriate that musical boundaries would be breached by the short-lived but still-resonant Disco Rock movement. The two styles inhabited two entirely different spaces, with Disco a distinctly urban music and Seventies rock ruling the suburbs, but with the record companies gasping for economic air and Disco peaking commercially it only made sense to merge the two. 

Yes. Punk is Dead as a Hammer.

This dude comes from my old neck of the woods and I could tell right away, on account it takes an old Masshole to recognized another. His vid here goes into how and when punk rock was castrated by the record companies, and turned then into a safe space for the kinds of weenies who wouldn't be caught dead near a hardcore show back in the day.

Everything lives and dies, that's just life. But seeing the corpse of punk dragged around as an amen corner for Big Pharma (and the Globalist cause in general) is just too much for this former punk rocker to stomach.

(Follow-Up to) 1982: Year of the Underwhelming Follow-Up LP

Well, three years ago I promised to follow-up on the post "1982: Year of the Underwhelming Follow-Up LP," but as usual my attention was captured by something else (which I can't even remember at the moment - Oh, OK, it was Stoner Metal).

1980 on 45: You Had to Be There

In 1977, The Clash famously sang "No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones." Two years later their obvious yet unspoken agenda was "absolutely nothing but Elvis, Beatles and Rolling Stones," and tons of other old-timey favorites.

It's Winter, but it Feels like Strummer.

Today is International Clash Day, which was started by KEXP-FM to give middle-aged milquetoasts an opportunity to tell us how London Calling changed their lives, on whatever social media platform they're stinking up these days. 

Punk Floyd

I was in a bit of quandary trying to decide which Wire album to focus on for this blog. This is a band that's been around practically forever and has made quite a lot of quality music all along the way. 

David Lynch: Forever Chasing the Siren

David Lynch may not have been as obsessed with Elizabeth Fraser as I am, but then again, maybe he was. He certainly spent a lot of time and money chasing that sweet, sweet Fraserly dragon...

1980 on 45: Pretenders Calling

It’s hard to imagine in this day and age, but the very first month of the Eighties saw the release of some of the most important and influential records of the decade.

Bowie: The Starman Return(ed) to the Sky

 

Note: this was originally posted on The Secret Sun, the day after Bowie's death. It's reposted here in honor of his birthday.

The Legend is now complete. The story has been told, its ending could not have been more perfectly constructed or executed. It's said that the great ones know when to leave the stage; The Greatest also know how.