Joe Bonomo's Blog, page 13

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from No Such Thing As Was! I hope that you and yours celebrate however you wish—and if that means ignoring the whole jam entirely, so be it!

I’m thankful for so much—my ex-gf, my family and friends near and far, our cats Rough Puff Pastry and Iggy Pop, my students, my writing and book projects—old and new (more on that soon!)—, rock and roll, books, walking, all of things that keep my heart pumping. And of course I’m grateful for you, all of my readers and subscribers here! Ha...

All part of decency's jigsaw

XTC, 1980: (l-r) Dave Gregory, Colin Moulding, Terry Chambers, Andy Partridge

There are some dated moments within XTC’s terrific run of albums in the 1980s (Black Sea, English Settlement, Mummer, The Big Express, Skylarking, and Oranges & Lemons) where the studio-finessed, contrived productions can sound fussily splashy. But great XTC songs transcend the origins of their composition, to paraphrase Joyce Carol Oates. Songs like “Generals and Majors,” “Senses Working Overtime,” “Love on a Farmboy's...

Let it shine, let it shine

As I write this, the blanket of Midwest gray has been pulled over us. There may be a day or three yet of bright sunshine, but soon enough the light will be dulled, thinned, extinguished—my metaphors depend on my level of desperation. I was born and raised in suburban Washington D.C., and before I moved to northern Illinois I’d lived in southeast Ohio for seven years—enough time, I felt, to have charged my internal solar battery for years to come. After nearly three decades, that fund is rapidly ...

Hate to say they told us so

DOWN AT THE ROCK AND ROLL CLUB—Early in the Hives show at Bottom Lounge in Chicago last night, singer “Howlin’” Pelle Almqvist thanked the sold-out crowd for coming, slyly acknowledging that the folks who bought tickets late probably paid a pretty penny for them. “And then the money went to someone else,” he observed with a half-grin, “and not The Hives.” His virtual finger-wag lingered in the air. Guilty. I ponied up on the third-party market as I’d been closed out of the initial ticket run bac...

The life of 5am

In his remarkable new book New York Bars at Dawn, photographer Daniel Root documents a world that’s somewhere between poles: dark and light, barren and peopled, closed and open. The book is a graphic reminder that the cliché of a sleepless New York originates, as all clichés do, in a startling truth. Even dozing, these bars are awake to colorful light and fantastic presence, and the ghosts of their patrons materialize page after page. Root has for years been posting his photographs at his wonder...

Best time of my life

Labels are tricky things: if they peel off, they leave residue. Such is the fate for a band or an artist who’s been affixed. They may transcend the tag they were given, but the tag leaves a ghostly stamp.

I wrote recently about The D4, the rocking New Zealand band who emerged during the “rock and roll aughts,” and their two great records, 6twenty and Out Of My Head. Among other bands who popped up in the 2000s with shaggy hair, skinny jeans, and loud guitars, I’ll cast a vote for The Star Spangle...

Out of their heads

The D4 formed in Auckland, New Zealand in 1998. They released a handful of singles and two albums, 6twenty (2001) and Out Of My Head (2005), before calling it quits in 2006. The band landed on my shores in the “rock and roll aughts” along with the other Neo Garage outfits from that loud ere, and I immediately fell in love with the their debut, a rip-roaring, top-to-bottom R&R onslaught of righteous twin-guitar riffs, eighth-note rhythms, and fiery playing. Guitarists Jimmy Christmas and Dion Lun...

We all need somebody

A song can be so rousing that it works in any context: a massive arena, a low-ceilinged dive bar, a basement, a bedroom. Plugged in and unplugged. Redd Kross’ “Visionary,” from the band’s fourth album Phaseshifter, released in 1993, is just such a tune.

Written by band founders and brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald, “Visionary” opens with its chorus, as if it won’t wait any longer than it has to to make its demands. Really, it opens with a monstrous riff from guitarists (Jeff) McDonald and Edwar...

Action figures!

Or, an “action-packed” post!

I’ve always loved the word, an excitable trochee. You learn and love it as a kid. Poseable superheroes! Poseable GI Joe! (Or in my case, Action Jackson.) As a kid I thought that my initials—J.B.—made me sound like a movie director, someone in charge of telling the story. A director gets to shout: Action! Later in adolescence the word took on different, more complicated shadings: “I need some action” meant, I need to get laid, or I need to score, or I need some money...

Ascending with The Brian Jonestown Massacre

DOWN AT THE ROCK AND ROLL CLUB—I experienced the Brian Jonestown Massacre experience for the first time at a transcendent, highly enjoyable show at The Vic in Chicago last night. Walking down Sheffield Avenue afterward, feeling blissy, I had to touch a leaf on a tree to feel grounded again.

Led by founder Anton Newcombe, the Brian Jonestown Massacre collective has been tripping out audiences since the early 1990s on numerous albums, EPs, and singles, rotating musicians in and out of the studio an...