Required Reading
- What’s Your Problem with Joe Biden?
- Dirty Rubles: An Introduction to Trump/Russia (My New Book)
- Youth for the President
- A Summary of the Conspiracy Against the United States
- Trump: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Part 3)
- Postcards from the Resistance, Vol. 8: Mother of All
- From Lance Armstrong to Trump: The Rise & Fall of the Deified Narcissist
- Reading Malcolm X in Texas
- Playing the Donald Trump Game
- President Rapist: Women Under Trump
- An Open Letter to My Fellow Liberals
- The Democrats Can’t Win If They Won’t Fight
-
Please Visit:
-
-
JOIN US:
Category Archives: Monday Rock City
Monday Rock City: A Conversation with Ed Piskor, Creator of Hip Hop Family Tree
Acclaimed comic book artist Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree series details originator Kool Herc’s revolutionary rec room parties in the summer of ’73 up to the rise of super stars the Beastie Boys and RUN-DMC. Our own JM Blaine catches up with Piskor straight off the Copenhagen Comics Festival to, uh, rap about the past, present, and future the still-growing Hip Hop Family Tree.
Continue reading
Love & Mercy and the Saving of Brian Wilson
Beach Boy Brian Wilson, musical genius and cultural icon, should have died, but did not. Someone saved him. Who, exactly, did the saving is up for debate. In any case, hot new biopic Love & Mercy, fleshes out the less-familiar trope of “saving the artist,” and our own Robert Burke Warren digs that. Continue reading
Monday Rock City: The Gospel According to Black Sabbath — A Conversation with Geezer Butler
In a fascinating conversation with our own JM Blaine, hugely influential Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler confirms that, yes, Black Sabbath were – and are – actually more Christian band than “Devil worshippers,” and always have been. Holy shit, indeed! Continue reading
Song Beneath the Song: Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue”
Bod Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue,” from his 1975 classic Blood On the Tracks, is unfinished. Always has been, always will be. Its incompleteness, however, is part of its power. It is no accident. Dylan engineered “Tangled Up In Blue” to be open-ended, unsealed, and shape-shifting, not unlike a jazz composition. He tinkers with it, sometimes radically reinventing it, both lyrically and melodically, to this day, making it one of the most resilient, resonant unfinished songs ever. Our own Robert Burke Warren gets deep into this distinctive, odd nugget from the Dylan canon. Continue reading
Dead Finks and Warm Jets: Evolved Enough for Eno
Even if you don’t know Brian Eno’s music, you’ve still heard him, in groundbreaking clients Talking Heads, Bowie, U2, and Coldplay, not to mention the 3.5 second chime that heralds the opening of every Microsoft Windows 95 program. (Written by Eno on a Mac.) How did Eno grab the attention of the iconic before they were icons? Guest Weekling Mark Donato answers that question by taking you back to Eno’s fabulous, way-ahead-of-its-time solo work, songs that now sound like blueprints for so much quality late 20th/early 21st century pop. Because they are. Continue reading
Posted in Memoir, Monday Rock City, Music, Popped Culture, Popular Culture, The Arts, Uncategorized
Tagged baby's on fire, brian eno, coldplay, here come the warm jets, mark donato, talking heads, u2
2 Comments
Monday Rock City: A Conversation with Duff McKagan
Bass player of the biggest, most controversial and contentious band in the world becomes… finance expert? Only one name you can attach to that story: Bestselling author, dad, and respected journalist Duff McKagan, a one-of-a-kind rock n’ roll Phoenix. He kicks back with our own J.M. Blaine to talk pinball, martial arts, being a middle aged gym rat, his old band Guns N’ Roses, and his new advice book: How to Be a Man (And Other Illusions). Continue reading
Bigger Than Jesus: The Gospel of U2, Leonard Cohen, and Sufjan Stevens
Robert Burke Warren goes deep into his own story to talk about the persistence of God in pop, and how and why non-believers and doubting Thomases still go for it. Continue reading
Posted in Current Events, Memoir, Monday Rock City, Music, Philosophy, Popped Culture, Religion, The Arts, The Weeklings, Uncategorized
Tagged Bono, carrie and lowell, fleshtones, God, i'm your man, Jesus, Leonard Cohen, religion, robert burke warren, shalom fellowship, Sufjan Stevens, the edge, u2
4 Comments
