book Archive
16 Oct 2019
Book Review: The Show Won’t Go On
Popular culture has long held a fascination with death. The old “death and taxes” saw about it being one of life’s inevitabilities speaks to the importance we place upon it. And that fixation – mixed with fear and dread – has manifested itself in all forms of artistic expression. Against that backdrop, a book that
10 Oct 2019
Book Review: “Echoes” by Glenn Phillips
For nearly fifty years, guitarist Glenn Phillips has been making music that defies classification. First with the Hampton Grease Band, and later as a prolific solo artist and active contributor to the works of others, Atlanta-based Phillips has continued to confound those who would apply labels to his music. And now with the release of
21 Sep 2019
Book Review: There Was a Light
I’m a voracious reader. My tastes run decidedly toward nonfiction, but I like a good narrative. And that’s been the case since I was very young. What I never could get into, however, was reading plays. My thinking is that plays are written to be performed, not read (unless you’re an actor, of course). A
09 Sep 2019
Book Review: A Voice of the Warm
Every so often, some of my Facebook friends and I engage in a little game. You might call it Dreadful Earworms: we try to outdo each other by rattling off the titles of some of the most annoying, saccharine, maudlin and just downright awful songs. If you’re a boomer (or perhaps even the child of
01 Aug 2019
Book Review: Begin the Begin: R.E.M.’s Early Years
Considering the influence which the group exerted on popular music – most notably in the category once known as “college rock” – it’s remarkable how much little of consequence has been written in book form about R.E.M. Many books have focused on the music scene in Athens, but few dug into the personalities of the
26 Jun 2019
Book Review: Bruce Iglauer’s ‘Bitten by the Blues’
Launched in 1971, Chicago-based indie label Alligator Records would grow to become one of the most significant forces in the commercial revitalization of blues. Founded by Bruce Iglauer (who remains at the label’s helm to this day), Alligator has been at the forefront of support for blues artists old and new. Iglauer’s new memoir, Bitten
21 May 2019
A Conversation with Laura Davis-Chanin, Author of ‘The Girl in the Back’ (Part Two)
Continued from Part One… I thought that your citing the Rashomon effect was really effective. Since the book has come out, have you heard — either directly or indirectly —from any of the characters in it that, “Hey, that’s not the way I remember it”? Oh, my God. You have no idea. We had a
20 May 2019
A Conversation with Laura Davis-Chanin, Author of ‘The Girl in the Back’ (Part One)
Laura Davis-Chanin is in a unique position to write a personal chronicle of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s New York rock scene. As the drummer in the Student Teachers, she experienced firsthand the scene happening in places like CBGB’s, Max’s Kansas City. She got to know many of the main players in that scene.
29 Mar 2019
Book Review: John Borack — Shake Some Action 2.0
In 2007, John M. Borack (later the author of Life is What Happens) put together a compendium of album reviews in book form. Shake Some Action explored the narrow slice of the pop-rock world that is powerpop, that oft-maligned subgenre where Raspberries, the Knack, Greenberry Woods and others live. As so many critics seem unable
28 Mar 2019
Book Review: Richie Ramone — I Know Better Now
Wait a minute: which one’s Richie? Oh, yeah: he’s one of the few Ramones who’s still alive. All four members of the band’s original lineup – Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and Tommy – are gone from this place. Joey’s brother Mickey Leigh wrote I Slept With Joey Ramone nearly a decade ago, but that book