Archive
Put the Needle On the Record is the ultimate coffee table book for collectors
Take note record collectors: this is the standard for all other record books to meet. Matthew Chojnacki’s beautiful and brilliant excavation of the 45s from the 1980s is both sickeningly thorough and visually stunning. Not only has…
Hope: A Tragedy is Shalom Auslander's brutal, darkly comic novel of humanity's follies.
“I’m sick of all this Holocaust shit.” -Anne Frank Solomon Kugel has a big problem. But so do I. Admittedly, Solomon Kugel’s problem is much larger than mine, but I feel to lay out the bare bones…
How to Wreck a Nice Beach is a pulsing head trip through the funkier parts of history.
Dave Tompkins throws us into the deep end of the history of the vocoder by lifting the curtain on a rather ominous scene. From the utterly perfect epigraph from H.G. Wells (no fair sharing it here) to…
Simon Reynold's Retromania is required reading for pop culture enthusiasts.
Are we eating our own tails? Of course we are, but that’s not the right question. The question is, why are we eating our own tails at such a rapid pace? The speed with which culture moves…
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive is creative but a little distracting.
If you keep track of the many sequels, remakes and retreads that the Hollywood movie machine churns out each year, you’re well aware that the state of originality in our culture should be at the top of…
Mike Doughty's memoir of his drug addiction is a standout in a crowded field of memoirs.
You’re going to get exactly what you want from Mike Doughty. “I’m writing mostly drug stories,” he warns from the outset of the oh-so-appropriately titled memoir, The Book of Drugs. “I have them. People read them.” He…
In 9-11: Was There An Alternative? Noam Chomsky proves more than just a clever linguist
This was my first Noam Chomsky book, but like many people the name was familiar to me. Familiar enough that my favorite one-liner by comedian Zack Galifianackis hit the target when I first heard it, even though…
Dead Letters tells a brief history of The Grateful Dead in the form of fan mail.
Until recently, it is expected to see a $20 fee for purchasing an already overpriced concert ticket. With some competition (finally) against the monopoly of ticket sellers, both band and fan occasionally have an alternative. As a…
Beethoven In America dissects the composer's proliferation of popular culture
Almost two hundred years after his death, the ghost of Beethoven still haunts our culture. He lords over us with his manic personality, his Godlike mythos, and his enduring riffs that have been endlessly proliferated through Western…
Courtney E. Smith details the trials and merits of Record Collecting for Girls.
When Record Collecting for Girls by Courtney E. Smith arrived at our house, I was pleasantly surprised that my husband was going to review this book for Stereo Subversion. Why wouldn’t he be interested in that book,…