Amy Heckerling’s Clueless (1995) should be on everyone’s Top 10 Teen Comedies list. First of all, it might be the best adaptation of a Jane Austen novel (Emma). Second, the film is solely responsible for the popularization of phrases like “Whatever!” and “As if!” which (regrettably in hindsight) remained a major part of teenage girl vernacular for the better part of two years. But most importantly, Clueless is a zeitgeist flick that Continue reading
Seeing the Light: Inside the Velvet Underground by Rob Jovanovic (2010)
Republished on Pop ‘stache after some tidying up…
Lou Reed: “We put a ship in the water, it turned out to be a turbo-powered sub and it took a while for it to land wherever it landed. Time was the real judge. The proof was in the work, and the work is on the record.”
SHH: “Rob Jovanovic put out a book on The Velvets, it turned out to be a slow-chugging sub and although it infrequently put its periscope up for an interesting anecdote, it never lands. The proof is in the shlock, and the shlock is in the book.”
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Rob Jovanovic has penned very competent and comprehensive books on artists including R.E.M., Pavement and Big Star. His latest book on music is Seeing the Light Continue reading
Congratulations to SHH’s newest contributor, Brian. Aside from being an avid reader, he’s also a local scholar of HBO’s The Wire. Enjoy!
“Easy Money: Anatomy of a Drug Empire” is a series of five articles written by David Simon that ran in The Baltimore Sun from January 11, 1985 to January 15, 1985. Simon is best known as the creator of the HBO series The Wire, but he started his professional career as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He joined The Sun out of college in 1982 and left in 1995, disillusioned by the corporate culture that invaded his newspaper. While reading Simon’s first book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, I found that “Easy Money” was referenced more than once by Simon and Continue reading
The Modern Lovers by The Modern Lovers (1976)
The Modern Lovers were a super group of not-yet-knowns in the 1970s. The band that played on their classic debut consisted of Jonathan Richman on guitar and vocals, Jerry Harrison on keyboard, Ernie Brooks on bass and David Robinson on drums. They disbanded after two short years in 1973 and the album itself wasn’t released until three years later. Richman went on to have a successful (albeit sappier) solo career keeping the band name as his back-up band, Harrison became the keyboardist for the Talking Heads, Brooks Continue reading
Traps is Jaill’s second release on Sub Pop after 2010′s That’s How We Burn and their third record as a band. Their first album, There’s No Sky (Oh My My), was released on Burger Records as Jail. Apparently Sub Pop forced them to change their name as there was a European band named Jail years ago.
Continue reading
At 7:41AM on Thursday May 31st I received a text message from my father:
“I’m sure you read that the Psychedelic Furs are at The Egg Saturday at 8PM?”
I hadn’t heard. And so, this article is going to prove two things: Continue reading
Punk as a genre has seen countless quick and powerful bursts followed by unbearably long dwindles in mainstream mediocrity. Punk seems to thrive in bleak, industrial cities that are otherwise devoid of culture. Surprisingly, the brightest spot on the punk map of late is the burgeoning scene in Copenhagen, Denmark, a city known for its jazz, architecture and clean environment.
Early last year, the Copenhagen-based punk quartet Iceage released their debut LP New Brigade to near universal acclaim. In late March 2012, Iceage’s Escho Records lablemate Lower released Continue reading
A few months ago I placed an Amazon order for the Kids in the Hall movie, Brain Candy, which I thought would round out my KITH collection (owning seasons 1-5 of their sketch comedy), but I discovered thanks to “customers who bought this item also bought…” that they had released a mini-series on the CBC (reran on IFC) entitled Death Comes to Town in 2010. As a Kids shill, Death Comes to Town was an exciting and obvious purchase.
The series, directed by Kelly Makin (KITH director since the early 90’s), takes place in the fictional Shuckton: a small Canadian town with Continue reading
Chicago’s Disappears has been busy, busy. Three albums in three years: 2010’s Lux, 2011’s Guider and this year’s Pre Language. Disappears is admittedly not doing anything new. Their three albums reclaim late 60’s garage rock (the Velvet Underground aesthetic on Lux and the White Light, White Heat structure of Guider), early 70’s proto punk and Krautrock, late 70’s post punk (particularly The Fall and Wire) and early 90’s shoegaze. Their sound also incorporates elements of frontman Brian Case’s former band The Ponys.
Pre Language wasn’t exactly what I expected Continue reading
Port of Morrow is The Shins’ fourth album and the first on leading man James Mercer’s own label, Aural Apothecary, after satisfying their three-album Sub Pop quota. I gave numerous listens to their first two albums Oh, Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow including but not limited to: Continue reading
the self-hating hipster 