Rat Scabies is the drummer of The Damned and Professor and the Madman. PATM’s great new album, Séance, echoes The Who, Beach Boys and Hüsker Dü, and was released November 13, 2020. *** What is your idea of perfect happiness? Peace of mind. What is your greatest fear? Seeing it coming and not being able to duck. What …
Eater was always one of my favorite bands. They were one of these British punk bands- actually Anglo-Egyptian- that created a lot of noise after inventing punkrock practically overnight. Eater are from North London and released their only studio album in that crucial year of punk. It’s called The Album (1977), and has been released …
I have about a hundred thousand favorite records. But because you’re based in Germany, I’ll pick a German band this time. The album was released on the legendary Ohr label, like so many albums of those pioneers that are gathered under the term “Krautrock”. In their prime, Guru Guru were the wildest of all these …
Crisis creates art and prosperity leads to tastelessness. This has recurred throughout history. The most recent example was how mortgage fraud of the late 1990s/early 2000s and the United States housing bubble of 2001-2005 coincided with the rising popularity of reality TV. Reality TV features people whose own privileged lives share little to no resemblance …
I’ve heard that Kim Gordon chose one of my records for this special. I’ll gladly return the favor, not just out of politeness, but with complete conviction. Sonic Youth‘s EVOL striked us Noise-Rock kids like no other record. I was 20 years old back then and studied at the University of Virginia. That was a …
Happy Birthday, Jason Pierce! Jason Pierce (a.k.a. the Spaceman) is an alchemist of the best sort – summoning sounds disparate yet similar in their scope and intensity, whether blues & gospel, psychedelic or electronic, the focus is on the core, the seed, beneath these layers of music: a cosmic drone which clears the mind and …
ZZ Top have been compared to all sorts of unexpected bands, but I know the one I’d most like to be compared with: Depeche Mode. I’m really fanatical about those cats. I had the pleasure of making their acquaintance in ’85 and we’ve stayed pals ever since. I worked with them on Delta Machine (2013), …
Happy Birthday, Gene Clark. Back at the turn of the 20th century (the so-called “American Century”), there was talk of the end of the American frontier, the wild blue yonder that set America apart and impelled everyone to seek their home there. Ever since that moment, there has been a search for the artistic experience …
I have always rejected the general notion that music was merely a listening experience or throwaway entertainment. Even at its most superficial, music feeds the intellect and the soul, for the better or worse. It informs us of the world we live in, and makes us part of the community we mentally and physically inhabit. …
He’s not well known in the West, but honestly I think he is probably the best singer alive in the world today. Technically and emotionally he is just incredible. Björk on Alim Qasimovic One of the most beautiful and powerful things in Muslim culture to me is the call for prayer, the “Ezan” (or Adhan). …
