music – Page 31 – Vol. 1 Brooklyn

Debating Goth in a Castle: A Dispatch From the Gothic: Culture, Subculture, Counterculture Conference

March 21, 2013 4 Comments

You can argue that intellectualization of any music subculture signals its death knell, but for a genre that prides itself upon already being dead, goth seems particularly desirous of an academic evisceration. Last weekend’s Gothic: Culture, Subculture, Counterculture conference in London did just that, with nearly 70 papers presented by PhD students, professors, journalists and independent scholars on the Gothic literary genre, Gothic architecture, and goth subculture. While the classic blood and guts were all discussed, True Blood, Twilight, and […]

Band Booking, Interviews, music

Band Booking: Deciphering “Twilight Language” With Family Curse

March 21, 2013 No Comments

Family Curse play deeply abrasive punk rock. Their new album, Twilight Language, is menacing and paranoid in all the right ways; writing at Noisey, Zachary Lipez noted that “[t]he record sounds mean, like the speed is still working but the visuals have gone sour.” It’s a bracing listening experience, and I checked in with guitarist Ken Edge and vocalist Erick Hughes via email to learn more.

Books, music

This Is What Happens When Stephen King Hangs With The Cougar

March 21, 2013 No Comments

If you’re curious to see more of the Stephen King, John Mellencamp and T Bone Burnett “southern gothic, supernatural musical,” look no further:

Band Booking, Featured, music

Band Booking: Talking Maxwell Perkins, DC Legacies, and the MC5 with Deathfix

March 14, 2013 No Comments

Looking at the lineup of Deathfix, whose self-titled debut was just released on Dischord, might prompt all sorts of expectations of what one might hear on their album. Guitarist Brendan Canty was one-quarter of Fugazi; keyboard player Rich Morel has been a house producer and worked with Bob Mould. The rhythm section of Devin Ocampo (drums) and Mark Cisneros (bass) come from Medications. And yet the seven songs heard here fall into a sort of dark, rhythmic pop sound, anchored by […]

Book Review, Books, music, reviews

Poetry and Punks on The Bowery: Richard Hell’s “I Dreamed I was a Very Clean Tramp” Reviewed

March 14, 2013 2 Comments

I Dreamed I was a Very Clean Tramp By Richard Hell Ecco; 304 p. “Broadway had two shadow companions,” Luc Sante wrote in his book Low Life. “Starchy, upper-class Fifth Avenue on the one hand, and on the other the Bowery, the proverbial den of all vices.” Sante was writing about the Bowery as the street and neighborhood of mid-1800s to the early 20th century, but prior to the Civil War, farmland, estates, and theatres populated the area we recognize today […]

Art, music

There’s Art in My Hardcore; There’s Hardcore in My Art: Visiting “We Don’t Owe You a Thing” at Small Black Door

March 13, 2013 1 Comment

I’ve known Carl Gunhouse, curator of the exhibit We Don’t Owe You a Thing (at Small Black Door through March 31st) for a few years now, though conversations have established that we were also at more than a few of the same hardcore shows in New Jersey in the late 90s. That didn’t come as much of a shock. Growing up listening to hardcore means finding things in common with people you encounter everywhere — socially, in music far removed from breakdowns and circle […]

Band Booking, music

Band Booking: Talking Thomas Pynchon and Brooklyn vs. Queens With PC Worship

March 12, 2013 No Comments

PC Worship is a Queens-based band that has been making atmospheric noise-heavy punk music for about four years. The band is composed of Justin Frye, Mike Etten and a rotating cast of musicians, including “Boston Bongo” Dan, Mario Maggio and Pat Spadine. Sometimes playing as a four piece and sometimes as a seven or eight piece band, they’ve managed to release a varied and challenging slew of music that incorporates elements of post-punk, rock, noise, metal and other styles. The […]

Books, Featured, music

Punk Rock Science Fiction: Travis Fristoe and Aaron Cometbus Make the Case for Radon

March 5, 2013 1 Comment

I might have done a bit of a double take when I saw it on the shelf at Book Thug Nation. A book about Radon, written by Aaron Cometbus and Travis Fristoe? Yes, I thought: I will read this. And so I picked it up and devoured it not long afterwards, back-to-back with the latest issue of Cometbus. Did it hurt that the book’s look and feel evoked the 33 1/3 series? Probably not.