that's the way that Snoopy does i
I write
for a lot of places.
The "greatest hits," if you just want to jump straight to some of my favorite pieces:
I've written about music
and books for the New
York Times; some of these pieces are free, some aren't.
I write a monthly column on comics
for Salon.
Here are the archives, plus some much older pieces I wrote for them;
you have to sit through an ad, I'm afraid.
I write record reviews for Pitchfork:
I wrote for the Village Voice
from 1996 to 2005, including (for the last few years) a column on the
music business, "The Sound of the Industry." A bunch of things I wrote
for them are on their site:
- Payola:
the other shoe.
- Charlie
Poole and You Ain't
Talkin' to Me.
- The
aftermath of MGM v.
Grokster.
- How
much is music worth?
- Chilling
effects: Easytree and WMG.
- Shocking
bluenoses: the FCC gets vaguer.
- Sharon
Jones and the Dap-Kings' Naturally.
- Downtown
clubs struggle to survive.
- M.I.A.,
Diplo and Rio baile funk.
- Fair
uselessness: the DRM conundrum.
- Cristina:
doll parts.
- Nirvana:
the drowned baby.
- Daniel
Raeburn's Chris Ware.
- Record
stores vs. "superior products."
- Neal Stephenson's The System of the World.
- Pay
to play: how music funds politics.
- Gary
Panter's Jimbo in Purgatory.
- The
Homosexuals emerge from collector hell.
- Tilly
and the Wall get sex wild.
- The
collapse of amphitheater
concerts.
- !!!'s
Louden Up Now.
- Candi
Staton sneaks around.
- What's
happening with brick-and-mortar record stores.
- Labels
learn that downloading is their friend.
- The
FCC invents "profanity."
- Undermine
your own business.
- Sun
City Girls' Carnival Folklore Resurrection
Radio.
- Arthur
Russell: living with imperfection.
- Grey
day.
- Mark
Coleman's Playback.
- DJ
Danger Mouse: Mother Nature's son.
- How
bad was the music industry's year?
- The
ghost.
- Two
senators, one Bo Derek, no trust.
- Robert
Wyatt: at last I am old.
- Major
labels: five to three.
- DBC
Pierre, ex-layabout.
- How
not to get sued by the RIAA.
- Universal
reversals: everything's on sale!
- Carla
Speed McNeil's Finder: Dream
Sequence.
- Melt-Banana's
micro-micro-microbiology.
- The
record business circles the
wagons.
- Down
the Hatch: the RIAA vs. you.
- Field
Day gets soggy.
- Dennis
and Lois, superfans
uprooted.
- New
York rockers remember how to dance.
- Eating
on the cheap in NYC.
- Richard
Thompson live.
- Internet
music blind items.
- David
B.'s Epileptic 1.
- The
"Joint Statement on Current Issues in Radio."
- Bertrand
Burgalat live.
- Elvis
Costello's When I Was Cruel.
- The
Locust live.
- Rough
trade: the state of file trading after Napster.
- Songs
about 9/11.
- A
stroke of genius.
- E-Xplo:
get on the bus.
- Mission
of Burma live.
- Rumors
of the war.
- The
Horror Prom.
- Bang
your shoe on the punk rock.
- Arthur
Bradford, rebel without paws.
- Dave
Eggers and McSweeney's #6.
- David
Bowman's This Must Be the Place.
- Radiohead
hope you like their new direction.
- The
Moldy Peaches: let's hear it for audacity.
- The
New Pornographers live.
- The
25th anniversary of Punk magazine.
- Chester
Brown's Louis Riel.
- The
Bangles live.
- David
Foster Wallace looks for the real McCain.
- Carnival
In Coal, gods of false metal.
- A
quick, mildly mean-spirited guide to NYC clubs.
- Chicks
On Speed and Lolita Storm get way disposable.
- Super
eros: comics writer Devin Grayson.
- Thomas
Beller's The Sleep-Over Artist.
- I
apparently can't stop writing about Chumbawamba.
- Wire
live.
- The
Cure: Robert Smith finds himself clean again.
- Etienne
Charry live.
- Hrvatski's
laptop beats, digital birds and Ricci fiends.
- The
New York Festival of Electronic Composers and
Improvisers.
- Sony,
Matador and Warp blow out their birthday candles.
- Warren
Ellis's Transmetropolitan: Year Of The
Bastard.
- The
cheap thrills of MP3.com.
- The
1999 phone company Jazz Festival.
- The
Comics Journal's Top 100 list.
- Esham:
unholy regional hit, Batman!
- Ultimate
Compilation Mania, 1999!
- The
Art of Noise live.
- Boredoms'
Super ae.
- The
Ethiopiques compilations.
- Chopping
timbre: the art of the indie-rock remix.
- DJ
Spooky's Riddim Warfare and live show.
- The
Vans Warped Tour 1998.
- Ryoji
Ikeda live.
- Thee
Headcoats live.
- Prince
Paul's party.
- Mogwai
live.
- John
Hudak's Brooklyn Bridge.
- The
Rondelles live.
- Culture
Club/Hedwig on New Year's Eve,
complete with factual error. That would be Michael Cerveris, not
John Cameron Mitchell.Whoops.
- The
high note of "I Heard It Through The
Grapevine,"
though--whoops
again--that's Tim Midgett singing on the Crust Bros.
version.
- Jim
Knipfel's book
Slackjaw.
- The
Goo Goo Dolls' Dizzy Up The Girl.
- Plush
live.
- Jonathan
Demme's Storefront Hitchcock.
- CMJ
Music Marathon, 1998.
- Adventures
In Stereo's Alternative Stereo Sounds.
- Caroliner
live.
- Chris
Knox live.
- Jon
Spencer Blues Explosion live.
- Bob
Mould live.
- Resonance
Radio.
- "Saddambombing"!
I write about pop music and
pop culture for
Slate:
I've intermittently written a music column
called "Smallmouth"; it ran from 1999 to 2002 in the
Boston Phoenix, and from 2004 to 2006 in Seattle Weekly. Here's most of the column's archive, in reverse
chronological order:
- Completing the collection.
- RT: The Life and Music of Richard Thompson.
- Elliott Smith, Sly Stone and Neutral Milk Hotel: one more taste.
- Red
and white catechism.
- The
glories of sludge.
- Gold
Sounds and Cobra Killer.
- Franz Ferdinand II.
- Death
Cab for Cutie's big day.
- Judee Sill, Richard Hell and Slapp Happy: 31
years in the wilderness.
- Motown, year four.
- Mark Stewart and Andrew Poppy: machines of
the year.
- The Go-Betweens' Oceans Apart.
- Gripping and slipping: Paul Morley's Words and Music.
- Defining
rockism.
- Deerhoof:
into the cosmos.
- Singles
again: Ying Yang Twins, Glass Candy and more.
- Invisible
men: Boredoms and John Zorn.
- James
Brown's horrible new "memoir."
- Eccentrics
and elephants.
- LMP,
raiding the 20th century.
- Mission
of Burma and Ubiquitous Eternal Live.
- The
Ayler set.
- Alison
Krauss, Jimmy Sturr and Smoosh.
- Øya!
Øya! Øya!
- Talking
Heads: artists only.
- The
Fiery Furnaces and Ken Stringfellow: knotty plots.
- The
singles life.
- A
feast of DNA.
- A.C.
Newman's power-pop grad school.
- The
artificial woman: Neulander and Lali Puna.
- Courtney
Love waves the red flag.
- Rocket
From the Tombs and the Mekons: once more with
feeling.
- The
Four Tops and Amps for Christ: whose song is
that?
- A
dilemma of horns: Diana Ross, the Brotherhood of Breath and Maher
Shalal Hash Baz.
- Sounds
beyond silence: James Joyce, Philip Jeck and His Name Is
Alive.
- Time
capsules from Nonesuch and Michael Snow.
- Against
the new wave of electro.
- Totally
wired for sound: The Fall.
- Jewlia
Eisenberg takes on Walter Benjamin.
- Kid606
gets someone else's freak on.
- Court
jesters: Pet Shop Boys and Helen Love.
- Beat
Happening and Olympian memory.
- The
strange new world of vinyl singles.
- A
conversation with New Orleans R&B legend Dave
Bartholomew.
- Disco/not
disco: post-punk gets in the groove.
- Young
alien types: Rocket from the Tombs.
- The
weathervanes: Jackson C. Frank, Phil Ochs and Tim
Hardin.
- Reconstructing
funk: Soul Fire and Stones Throw.
- Honey
Cone: making the band.
- Don't
sing: the ...Native Hipsters and Life Without
Buildings.
- Touch
Ringtones, London sounds and more: inattention,
please!
- The
unheard music (that they told us we would hear).
- Fugazi
and the Dismemberment Plan.
- Velvets
goldmine: new notes from the Underground.
- A
man in full: Charley Patton.
- Everyone's
asking: who are parents?
- Troubleman
Unlimited tries to make a scene.
- Margo
Guryan's old photographs.
- Everything
old is Neu! again.
- What
isn't jazz?: Spring Heel Jack, Ex Orkest, and Thai Elephant
Orchestra.
- Maybe
we don't want to hear your outtakes.
- Martin
Phillipps and the Chills play the "if only" game.
- The
Holy Modal Rounders and Martin Carthy.
- Terry
Riley, Alan Licht and Nobukazu Takemura fracture the
dance.
- Re-re-re-reworking
Plunderphonics.
- Boredoms
branch out and trance out.
- The
state of the art of horrible noise.
- Mark
Prendergast's dreadful The Ambient Century.
- Why
don't you listen to Liliput, where punk rock starts and
ends?
- The
weather! The leather! Rediscovering Swell Maps.
- Richard
Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith, musicking.
- The
most notable albums of Bizarro World 2000.
- The
return of '70s funky Africa.
- Sade
and Rudimentary Peni: Thatcher's survivors.
- Masters
at Work and the secular gospel of the discotheque.
- Metal
Machine Music, 25 years later--it's sort of
pleasant!
- A
pleasure in not being pleased: the virtues of genuinely awful
records.
- Electronic,
New Order, and the secret art of the song.
- The
Frogs push everybody's buttons.
- After
the convention: Richard & Linda Thompson and Sandy
Denny.
- The
small triumphs of Thee Headcoats and Rennie
Sparks.
- The
return of DIY-punk, sort of.
- Obsession
is the sincerest form of flattery: The Concise Pink Pig
Atlas.
(This is actually the
longer version that ran in the Chicago Reader.)
- Ten
years of Drag City.
- Sun
City Girls and Sun Ra.
- A
connection is made: Wire and Elastica return.
- The
Donner Party, Raymond Scott, Dreamies and more.
- Couldn't
escape if I wanted to: A*Teens and Ace of Base.
- Severe
High Fidelity damage.
- How
electronic music's avant-garde turned into pop.
- No
fun: the art of the buzzkill.
- Brutal
youth: the Fall and Kid606.
- Fela
Kuti and the principle of prolongation of
pleasure.
- Scritti
Politti's Green plays juke box jury.
- Ultimate
Compilation Mania, 2000!
- Germany's
Trikont label.
- The
hidden treasures of 1999.
- Hearing
the White Album through different voices.
- Pet
Shop Boys, Alison Krauss, and the live spectacle.
- Egypt,
Indonesia, "world music," etc.
- A
bunch of little reviews with nothing much in
common.
- From
Flin Flon to Unrest to Henry Cow.
- The
mystery of Jandek.
- Sonic
snapshots of Burning Man.
- How
I learned to stop worrying and play "Stairway To
Heaven."
- Music
about dance music.
- Watching
Muse do the Radiohead thing.
- Digital
audio abuse for kicks: Oval, Disc, Nobukazu Takemura,
etc.
- Farewells
from Tom Cora, Harry Pussy, Max Brand and Pelt.
- Three
versions of "Poptones."
- Desco
Records' funk commodity fetishism.
- The
art of the greatest-hits album.
- Rare
birds: the Nihilist Spasm Band and the Clusone 3.
- Brazilian
pop across the decades: Os Mutantes and Musique du
Nordeste.
- Blip,
Bleep: Soundtracks to Imaginary Video Games and Tape
Op.
- The
soft underbelly of disco.
- Rating
records: Rot, Rock and Rule.
- Misfits
action figures, and the Shaggs.
- Remixing
Steve Reich: the composer meets the DJs.
- The
music of silence and near-silence.
And here are some other
pieces I've done for
the Phoenix:
Some miscellaneous pieces:
- Four graphic novels reviewed: a sense of place. (Washington Post)
- Laura Barrett's "Robot Ponies." (Paper Thin Walls)
- Caroline Peyton's "Engram." (Paper Thin Walls)
- The complete and utter history of the Numa Numa Dance. (The Believer)
- The essential James Brown playlist. (Rolling Stone)
- The story of L.L. Cool J's "I Need Love." (Blender)
- Cat Power's mighty frailty. (eMusic)
- Kanye West's top collaborations. (Rolling Stone)
- A guide to Bob Dylan's discography: part
1 ('60s and '70s); part
2 ('80s-present); part 3 (live
and compiled). (Blender)
- Perverted
by language: the Fall's Peel sessions. (The Believer)
- Five
graphic novels: the uses of cuteness. (Washington Post)
- The
New Pornographers' Twin
Cinema. (Spin)
- The
Magnetic Fields: the distancing effect. (eMusic)
- New
graphic novels: Bone, Kramer's Ergot,
Gemma
Bovery and more. (Washington
Post)
- David
B.'s Epileptic. (New
York)
- Ho
Che Anderson's King.
(Seattle Weekly)
- Picking
up the pieces: Brian Wilson. (The
Nation)
- Anarchy
in the NL: 25 years of the Ex.
(Seattle Weekly)
- In
the Shadow of No Towers, Carnet de Voyage
and
more.
(Washington
Post)
- A
Fantagraphics Top 10.
(Seattle
Weekly)
- Sacrifice,
rodents and "filth."
(Washington
Post)
- Brian
Eno's rock albums, reissued.
(Blender)
- Terry
Pratchett's A Hat Full of
Sky.
(Washington
Post)
- McSweeney's
#13: return to the funnies, sort of.
(City
Pages)
- The
wonderful truth about Mission of
Burma.
(Willamette
Week)
- A
roundup of recent graphic novels.
(Washington Post)
- Stereolab:
living in dual mono.
(Seattle
Weekly)
- The
Cure: men in black.
(The Nation)
- Franz
Ferdinand make the girls dance.
(Willamette Week)
- Voice
of the Fire. (City
Pages)
- Chester
Brown's Louis Riel. (City
Pages)
- The
Handsome Family and the river of blood.
(Willamette
Week)
- The
music scholar.
(City
Pages)
- Popcorn
unlimited.
(LCD)
- No
wave, revisited.
(Dusted)
- Feed
asked me what the most forward-thinking record of the last 25
years was.
(currently
non-functional)
- LCD Soundsystem gets
irritable. (Los
Angeles Times, 2/20/05)
- Will Eisner, hero of the
comics. (Los
Angeles Times, 1/7/05)
- "The Runaways Record
'Cherry Bomb'"
(Blender, October 2004)
- The Magnetic Fields: the
beholder's
i. (The Nation, 6/21/04)
- Notes on art so bad it's
good. (The
Believer, March 2004)
In 2006 and 2007, I wrote a weekly blog about the weekly comic book 52. The archives are here.
I review graphic novels and
write about the
comics industry for Publishers Weekly:
I wrote for New Times Los
Angeles, back when
it existed. Here are some articles (these links don't currently
work--try archive.org if you want to read these pieces):
And my dear friend the
Cloud of Unknowing
contributed to suck.com: