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  • Throw Beck Thursday: How Do You Want to be Remembered?

    I’ve never really cared about my legacy, and then I read the obituary of a crazy racist. — I was raised in South Carolina, though I haven’t lived there now for close to 30 years. That’s irrelevant, though. As any of you with a social media network knows, we never really leave our hometowns anymore.…

  • On Diffuser: My Interview With Berlin’s Terri Nunn

    There’s never a day that I don’t love my gig, but some days are better than others. Sitting down with Terri Nunn for a chat about LA in the new wave days? That’s about as good as it gets. I wish I had the column inches to run our full conversation, but that would’ve been…

  • Deep Cuts: Queen

    I love Queen, but Sweet Freddie’s Overbite have we played out the same six songs. I never need to hear “We Will Rock You” again. Even songs I love like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Stone Cold Crazy” have had enough airplay for ten lifetimes. (“Under Pressure,” you’re cool dude. Don’t worry.) So let’s talk about deep…

  • On Diffuser: Mandatory ’80s Punk Movies

    Remember when punk was new, scary, and dangerous? Probably not. As a genre punk is middle-aged now, thick in the belly and thin in the hairline, just like the rest of us. But man, back in the late ’70s and early ’80s there were a few really great punk movies released that captured not just…

  • 212. No More of That Jazz

    My earliest birthday memories are no more than fragments: A Winnie the Pooh cake my aunt and my mother made for me; a two-layer cake with the Seven Dwarfs seated around its perimeter. I played elevator with Sneezy and his friends, shoving each down to the first floor, leaving seven divots in my birthday cake.…

  • From The Stacks: Led Zeppelin – A Tribute to Johnny Kidd and the Pirates

    This is what bootlegs are all about: 28 tracks of unrehearsed Led Zeppelin goodness. If you’ve ever wanted to be in the room while the mighty Zep dicked around with their instruments, this is as good as it gets. False starts, a few measures of this or that, Bonzo banging the shit out of his…

  • On Diffuser: Meet the New Bob Dylan, Same as the Old Bob Dylan

    “He’s the new Bob Dylan.” “They’re the new Beatles.” Why do writers insist on making such comparisons? I don’t know, but I had a lot of fun exploring “the new so and so” phenomenon for this Diffuser piece. Enjoy.

  • From The Stacks: Tenacious D – The Pick of Destiny (Deluxe Edition)

    The Pick of Destiny may not have been the greatest movie ever made, but it gets a little funnier every time I watch it. Where else are you going to get cameos from Meat Loaf, Ronnie James Dio, and John C. Reilly as Sasquatch?

  • Throw Beck Thursday: Your Kid Is Not My Safety Problem

    The whole world cannot be childproofed, and that’s actually a good thing. My neighbor—correction, my neighbors, as this is a rapidly spreading cancer—have taken to sticking a bright orange sign near the middle of the street to remind us all that children are playing in our residential neighborhood. Let me say that once more for…

  • On Diffuser: The Roots of Indie – The Bromley Contingent

    If you’re a punk fan, this one is a must read. The Bromley Contingent was the inner circle of early Sex Pistols fans. You might be surprised to learn who some of those teens were and what they went on to accomplish. Enjoy: http://diffuser.fm/the-roots-of-indie-the-bromley-contingent/