post-punk Archive
10 Jun 2021
Dialogue Now! Consolidated Returns From a Self-Imposed Exile
An edited version of this feature appeared previously in SF Weekly. Socialism is back. Though it was widely popular in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, the political philosophy endured years in the wilderness thanks to its vilification during the McCarthy era, the “me decade” of the 1970s, the Reagan
16 May 2019
200-word Reviews: Five Vinyl Records
Few people are mas pleased as myself to witness (up close and personal) the vinyl revival. I’m not getting into the warmth-versus-digital argument; all I know is that as an old-school type who began purchasing LPs at age eight, I will always prefer the vinyl LP format. Plus, the artwork and liner notes are better
15 May 2019
Even More Hundred-worders for May 2019
I’m determined to keep my backlog of music-for-review to a manageable size. Making that happen means that once again it’s time for ten of my quickie reviews. So off we go. These are all new or very recent titles of new music. Girls on Grass – Dirty Power I really like this record. Right off
31 Dec 2018
Musoscribe’s Best of 2018
Even having shifted my focus these last few years toward interviews and feature writing, I still manage to listen to and review quite a few albums. In one form or another, I covered some 170 albums of new music in 2018. It’s no surprise that a few have risen to the top, deemed worthy of
14 Dec 2018
John Lydon Tells It As It Is (Part Two)
Continued from Part One… In what ways do you think that that realization comes through in your music? I try to be as transparent and honest as I possibly can, with the realization that if you give it all away there is nothing left for yourself. And that would be silly. Because I absolutely understand
13 Dec 2018
John Lydon Tells It As It Is (Part One)
Crawling from the wreckage that was the Sex Pistols, vocalist Johnny Rotten reverted to his given name and put together a new group, Public Image Limited. PiL drew from dub reggae and disco, filtered through sheets of dissonance and Lydon’s trademark vocals. Through fits and starts, the band released a string of albums and unlikely
12 Dec 2018
John Lydon is … Happy? (Part Two)
Continued from Part One… A defining characteristic of most all of PiL’s releases is that – like Black Sabbath, oddly enough – each was critically panned upon release, only to undergo reassessment within a few years, by which time the music would be hailed as relevant, innovative and important. One might expect Lydon to find
11 Dec 2018
John Lydon is … Happy? (Part One)
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” With that question posed to an audience at San Francisco’s Winterland on January 14, 1978, visibly unhappy vocalist Johnny Rotten (neé Lydon) ended his tenure with the Sex Pistols. Not counting relatively brief reunions in 1996 and 2007, that gig marked the effective end of the band, though
25 Oct 2018
Album Review: The Fall – I Am Kurious Oranj
The Fall were never most people’s idea of a commercial group. They didn’t have the jangling melodicism of the Smiths, nor the sophisticated funk groove of Gang of Four. But the British postpunk band did have Brix Smith. She was Mark E. Smith’s wife and lead guitarist, and her influence moved the band in its
11 Sep 2018
Album Review: The Fall — 45 84 89 A Sides
The Fall are one of those groups that somehow largely escaped my notice, until now. I think I first heard a song by the Fall sometime in the late 1980s. All I can recall about the song is that I found it fairly unlistenable, mostly because of what I considered Mark E. Smith’s grating, declamatory
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