In 2011, Stephen Malkmus, with his backing band the Jicks, released Mirror Traffic. The album contains an arresting cover image of three Black men, two of whom are watching something in the distance while the third is zipping and hiking up his pants. With the album’s release, Malkmus did an interview with Pitchfork breaking downContinue reading “Stephen Malkmus Series: “Senator””
Tag Archives: The Velvet Underground
Some Thoughts on Pavements
Pavements — the 2025 quasi-documentary which tracks the impact of the band Pavement from their beginning in Stockton, CA in 1989 through their ups and downs in the 1990s until the present — is anything but a simply-told story. Writer/director Alex Ross Perry has stuffed his film with every idea he possibly can to makeContinue reading “Some Thoughts on Pavements”
Some Other Dimensions In Yo La Tengo
In researching my Yo La Tengo’s Guitar Sculptures piece for Aquarium Drunkard, I came across a previously unknown project to me while reading Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock by Jesse Jarnow. Between 1999 and 2003, there was a series of collaborations between Yo La Tengo and the freeContinue reading “Some Other Dimensions In Yo La Tengo”
Period Piece Music: Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee and Jack Name’s Fabulous Soundtracks
In 2023, the director Kelly Reichardt appeared on WTF with Marc Maron and she and Maron raved about their mutual love of Robert Altman’s 1971 film McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Reichardt spoke about how her own movie First Cow explored similar territory as the Altman classic. She went on to say how so many filmContinue reading “Period Piece Music: Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee and Jack Name’s Fabulous Soundtracks”
“Born in the U.S.A.”: Suicide in Paris, January 20, 1987
On January 20, 1987, the band Suicide played a concert at La Locomotive in Paris, France. With the concert well under way, lead singer Alan Vega announces to the French audience: “This is a little song for Bruce Springsteen.” The crowd jeers in response with a few boos and claps mixed in as well. VegaContinue reading ““Born in the U.S.A.”: Suicide in Paris, January 20, 1987″