Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley to publish ‘The Story of Modern Pop’ book. Bob Stanley is a sometime-critic of pop music and the founder of Saint Etienne. His upcoming book is (apparently) 800 pages long and has the best (and yet, the most obvious) title of any book on pop yet written. The book is an attempt “to bring the whole story to life, from Billy … Continue reading Bob Stanley’s ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’
The important thing about Musician magazine is that it is named Musician magazine. It is not named Music magazine. It is not named Sociology magazine. It is not named Popular Culture, Politics and Anything Else the Editor Likes magazine. And it is certainly not named Critical Theory magazine. Why? Because musicians are interesting and everything else is boring. Well, okay. Music is intensely interesting when … Continue reading The Name Game
Yes, that James Chance. From the latest edition of Perfect Sound Forever. Because I’m fairly noir-deficient, much of the context here eludes me, but there’s some great lines throughout. On 1947’s Nightmare Alley: “The movie that proves that the geeks that you meet on the way up are the same ones you meet on the way down. In fact, you just might be meeting yourself.” … Continue reading James Chance on Film Noir
Chuck Berry, in 1980, shares his thoughts on the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Talking Heads, and more. From an interview in the fanzine, Jet Lag, reprinted at Dangerous Minds. Great stuff; particularly love his Wire/Joy Division review. Continue reading Chuck Berry, Punk Critic
RockCritics.com 