Back in May, “Best Worst Movie” director Michael Paul Stephenson wrote an editorial about loving bad movies. It was titled: Bad Books Are Bad, and Bad Food Is Bad. But Bad Movies Are Not Always Bad What’s missing from the title? Music. Specifically bad music. Perhaps Stephenson left bad music out of the conversation for … [Read more…]
A couple years back, Minor Threat drummer and Dischord Records co-founder Jeff Nelson decided to do a little spring cleaning. So, he did what any person looking to unload a whole lot of perceived junk would do: Sell it on eBay. Yet, Nelson wasn’t getting rid of, say, an old Tickle Me Elmo. Nelson began … [Read more…]
I recently wrote a piece on all-ages shows and DIY venues in Chicago for Medill. The article went online Tuesday, and comes with a (brief) sister piece about the history of all-ages and DIY shows in America, a video and slideshow of a couple of venues and a handful of graphs and photos of these shows. … [Read more…]
When Philadelphia’s Algernon Cadwallader played Strangelight – a new Chicago DIY venue – on Friday, Feb. 5, singer/bassist Peter Helmis took some time to discuss the process of creating and selling merchandise.
Overlooked in the Aughts is an ongoing feature focusing on some of the best albums from the 2000s that haven’t quite received the attention they deserved. Today’s post: Beauty Pill’s The Unsustainable Lifestyle. Dischord in the Aughts was something many of the label’s ardent fans never saw coming. The beloved DIY label seemed to be going through … [Read more…]
Giddy would be a great explanation for how I felt when I saw this news release from Jagjaguwar: We’re proud to announce that PARTS & LABOR will be releasing their new album, “Receivers,” on 10/21/08 here in the US and 11/03/08 in the UK. Brooklyn’s Parts & Labor has become one of my favorite bands … [Read more…]
Before things begin, I shall kick things off with the words of someone else. Ted Rall is a witty, no-holds-barred political cartoonist with a wonderful sense of humor. Shamefully, I don’t read his weekly comics as often as I’d like to/should. But, as I flipped through the most recent edition of the Weekly Dig, I … [Read more…]