I love Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis , I love Habibi, and I love Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. However, there’s one word choice that I’ve always hated having to make when talking about these books with other people: Do I tell them… Read More
Yes, the band created the template for heavy metal and thrash, but even now, it’s instructive to acknowledge just how unique Black Sabbath were when they first emerged; how different from anything else anyone was doing. It’s not just that… Read More
New to the Paramount line is one of the few Robert Altman films that could be called delightful, although lots of people, as the saying goes, just don’t get it. Unfairly maligned as a bomb and a disaster, Popeye (1980)… Read More
On 23 June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union after months of campaigning. The vote – coined Brexit (a portmanteau of Britain and Exit) – was predicted to end in Remain’s favour. Much of the polls… Read More
North Carolina’s deep-rooted musical history has more to offer than James Taylor singing “Carolina in My Mind”. Like its geography, the Tar Heel state’s music comes from the backroads, the dirt paths, the main streets, the warehouses, street corners, and… Read More
Trent Reznor: industrial auteur, Generation X icon, Grammy Award winner, lavishly-praised film composer. When Reznor was toiling late nights to piece together the first Nine Inch Nails album Pretty Hate Machine (1989), did he ever conceive that the angst-laden electronic/rock… Read More
Elizabeth Bear’s latest novel is titled Machine, but the term could easily refer to its author. Her literary output is astonishing: 32 novels in 15 years, not to mention a rich assortment of short stories and essays. How does she… Read More
The situation of pianist Joe Castro seems like it came out of one of those low-budget black and white film noir movies about jazz musicians during the mid-20th century. It’s kind of a twist on the Pal Joey plot, the… Read More
Few musicians have succeeded in manipulating and shaping atmosphere as well as Coil. The duo founded by musical (and life) partners John Balance and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson in 1982 produced 18 astonishingly innovative studio albums (plus dozens of singles, EPs,… Read More
In the 1960s, there was a band that changed the way popular music was made forever. They challenged conventional ideas regarding harmony, form, and instrumentation in pop music. They innovated the way the recording studio could be used as an… Read More