ARTICLES BY JUNE SPRIG
|
 DAVID WALLECHINSKY IS A HUMAN ENCYCLOPEDIA
A longtime reader of this magazine (such as yourself) already knows about David Wallechinsky because you read the People's Lists feature in every issue. That's the column that takes excerpts from Wallechinsky's (along with his late father and sister) brilliant 70s and 80s reference books about... everything.
The People's Almanac and The Book of Lists were the internet before there was an internet, Wikipedia...
|
|
|
  BRANCHES AND ROOTS AND... PINECONES
Tall Firs Tell Us What They LikeTall Firs are a Brooklyn band that has really calming vibes but also a low-level heaviness sort of thing going on. If I were a really lazy writer who relied on clichés, I would say that Tall Firs' music has a "sense of hushed intensity." I guess I just kind of said that anyway, but I got away with it by putting it in quotes. Nice.
There are three guys in Tall Firs. Aaron and Dave have been friends since the era of high school, LSD, four-track recording, and audible tape hiss being a ...
|
|
|
 OUT THERE
Everybody likes to jaw on and on about indie rock and indie labels and indie magazines and indie rap (that's the worst indie), but what about indie distros? There are tons of them and they never get anybody saying, "Hey, I really like you guys. You guys are OK." So, for the Russian Issue of Vice, we...
|
|
|
 OUT THERE
One Kiss Can Lead To Another is the coolest box set ever. It contains four discs of the best in girl-group music. Not a bunch of stuff you've heard a thousand times either. This is deep, deep collector shit. There are songs on here that you would have to pay, like, your little toe and an ounc...
|
|
|
 SILVER FOX
Dave Berman Went and Got Shit OnDave Berman, a.k.a. the Silver Jews, is the best lyricist in rock today. That might be because he is also at the top of the heap of the best published poets in America today. His new record, Tanglewood Numbers, features his wife, Cassie, and his friends Stephen Malkmus and Mike Fellows laying...
|
|
|
 RIGHTEOUS DAD
Gary Higgins Ain't So Bad for a BoomerGary Higgins is lucky that this whole SIX Organs of Admittance folky psychy thing came into vogue, but all these kids are also lucky that dudes like Gary existed because they wouldn't have ideas without the hip dads like Gary here. It's like the Grandfather Paradox, man. Or like the chicken and the ...
|
|
|
 LITERARY/I WANT MY DVDS
Book/Movie Reviews - The Kill Your Parents IssueLUNAR PARK
It’s been too long since Bret Easton Ellis wrote a book this good. Lunar Park is a total return to form. It might be better than the Rules of Attraction. It isn’t as good as Less...
|
|
|
 DOG RAGAS
MV/EE Get GroovyDogs can have really special and intense energy-they are organically connected to the primal spirit of the wolf, the lone hunter that roams the dark corners of the world. I think that all people should try and cultivate more wolf energy in themselves nowadays. Especially men.
Ha ha ha, just...
|
|
|
 FREAK THE FUCK OUT
Sunburned Hand of the Man on a TripVermont's Sunburned Hand of the Man are not fucking hippies. Yes, they come from a hippie state and yes, they are more or less unwashed, but these guys are as far removed from peace and love as the Taliban. At a recent show at New York's Tonic nightclub, they took the stage well past 1 AM, picked up...
|
|
|
 OUT THERE
Cassette culture was a cornerstone of the indie and punk rock undergrounds of the 80s. First you made tapes of albums that you owned for your friends who didn't have them. Then, at some golden point of inspiration in the course of cultural evolution, someone invented the mix tape. Whoever that wonde...
|
|
|
 THROUGH THE FLAMES
Gang Gang Dance Rise UpNew York's Gang Gang Dance are a bird as rare and special as a phoenix-they're an avant-garde band that isn't boring, over-thought, or ugly.
Gang Gang Dance sound like music of the world-like, they aren't influenced by Ethiopian drummers or muezzin calls, they are those things (when they're pla...
|
|
|
 LITERARY
Book Reviews - The Mentally Ill IssueTHE WU-TANG MANUAL
Have you ever wondered exactly why RZA was "perpendicular to the square" on "Triumph"? Or what the Wu's drug of choice was when they recorded their first album? Or...
|
|
|
 OUT THERE
"I hate fucking World Music. (I don't hate music from all over the world. In fact, I love lots of that. But I hate the world music that goes in the world music section at Tower and HMV.) It's patronizing and ghettoizing, plus they don't even pick any of the good stuff....
|
|
|
 OUT THERE
"Out there" music (like, "Wow that's some weird and far out free jazz") is one thing, but what about when music is literally out there, like it was recorded in fields, caves, meadows, and the seaside? What are you going to do then, buddy? If you have a brain and a heart, you are going to love it....
|
|
|
|
|
| |
