search

How to Fight Your Father

It's funny: Because I haven't listened to music in days, I feel as though I have nothing to say.

Let me try.

The "Deluxe Edition" of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation is sitting on my desk, and I haven't opened it yet. I haven't listened to music in days. Something is obviously, plainly, unambiguously wrong. Isn't it? My days go by without hook or melody, verse verse verse and out. I wake, force myself to do a few sit-ups, shit, shower, maybe shave, turn to channel 4 to get the weather from Al Roker, pick out underwear and socks and t-shirt, gather my jeans…

Backward Causality

We report, you decide.

Huckleberry Helps

Huck knows exactly what the enterprising freelancer needs: A feline muse, who alternately attacks the keyboard and scrutinizes the monitor.

Bagheera Discovers Fresh Catnip

"You can just buy this at the Coop—and you've never done it before? What were you thinking?"

Pageant of the Transmundane

Now that we're perched upon the precipice of the Simpson Movie opening—at least a decade too late—I, by chance, I caught the Hullabalooza episode with the Smashing Pumpkins this week, the one where Homer becomes part of the "pageant of the transmundane," by being shot in the stomach with a cannonball.

For those who don't remember the show when it still had fertile ideas and good to great one liners, this half hour, with Sonic Youth re-recording the theme song just for this episode, was pretty special—at least to the musically inclined. For me it's always been about the one–liners, "…

Afghan Whigs

Unbreakable
(A Retrospective 1990-2006)
Elektra/Rhino

So Greg Dulli either reveled in being an asshole or it was all an act, but whichever the case, and who ever said nice had anything to do with rock’n’roll, that tale is very old news at this point.

What's still relevant is the band's music, which judging from this absurdly overdue career summation, remains an anomaly from the late 90's heyday rush of alt rock. The stylistic amalgam they managed to achieve succeeds in being both harder edged and yet looser and funkier than most of their white, guitar wielding,…

Why the hate, Bill?

For our October issue, I have to contact all of the manufacturers and distributors whose products are being considered for our "Recommended Components" listing. I simply ask them to verify model names and pricing.

This was my conversation with one manufacturer — let's call him "Bill" — at approx. 3:40 P.M. on the 20th of July, 2007:

*Ring*****Ring*

Bill: This is Bill.
Ariel: Hi Bill, this is Ariel from Stereophile magazine. How are you?
B: Why are you calling?
A: I was wondering if you received our fax in regards to the "Recommended Components" issue…

Why Do They Hate Us?

Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, was asked on a book tour, "So tell me, sir. Why do they hate us?" Having spent half his life in America, the Pakistani writer had to think about who "us" and "they" were. This fine essay is the result of that thinking.

Format Wars

Woulda, coulda, shoulda—some "superior" formats just didn't achieve dominance.

Steamin' in the Rain

It's Monday. It's raining. And people, tourists in particular, (excuse me, why don’t you just poke out the other eye while you're at it!) cannot walk with umbrellas, so let’s talk Ticketmaster.

In late September/early October singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams is coming to both Los Angeles and New York for multi-night stands where the first set will be one of her older records in its entirety and the second a mix of new stuff. It's a wonderful idea that I wish more artists would adopt. In some ways, it's a dream come true. How about the Stones do Let It Bleed or Exile followed by their…