David Pike

David Pike writes regularly on medieval literature, modernism, film, neo-Victorianism, subterranea, urban fantasy, global urban culture, and Paris and London, and is the author of half a dozen books, most recently Cold War Space and Culture in the 1960s and 1980s: The Bunkered Decades (Oxford UP). He teaches in the Department of Literature at American University. For more on his writing, please visit his author pages at american.academia.edu/ and Bright Lights Film Journal and his faculty profile page at American University at american.edu/cas/faculty/dpike.cfm
In the Wake of the Grateful Dead in 1973

In the Wake of the Grateful Dead in 1973

Looking back after 50 years at the Grateful Dead’s pivotal year of 1973, including Wake of the Flood and three November nights at Winterland.

NYC’s Underground Scene: ‘This Must Be the Place’

NYC’s Underground Scene: ‘This Must Be the Place’

Music may be the glue of every NYC underground scene This Must Be the Place covers, but Jesse Rifkin’s primary interest is in the community held together by that glue.

‘Going For Broke’: Life on the Edge By Those Who Live It

‘Going For Broke’: Life on the Edge By Those Who Live It

Going for Broke: Living on the Edge in the World’s Richest Country turns to the real experts on economic hardship in America: those who live it.

Just Growing Old? Steely Dan’s ‘Countdown to Ecstasy’ at 50

Just Growing Old? Steely Dan’s ‘Countdown to Ecstasy’ at 50

Steely Dan’s Countdown to Ecstasy reveals a progression toward ever more sheen and polish on a smooth shell, the source of the “yacht rock” label that defined them.

Slow Burn: Bob Marley’s ‘Catch a Fire’ 50 Years Later

Slow Burn: Bob Marley’s ‘Catch a Fire’ 50 Years Later

Bob Marley’s Catch a Fire is when the Wailers transformed into the vehicle of his ascent to superstardom and reggae’s assimilation into the global pop music melting pot.

Why Is There Still So Much Nostalgia for Nuclear Apocalypse?

Why Is There Still So Much Nostalgia for Nuclear Apocalypse?

The popularity of nuclear apocalypse is nostalgia for a time when our worries were wrapped in a single nuclear package, and all we needed was a bunker and a dream.

Back to Earth on Elf Power’s ‘Artificial Countrysides’

Back to Earth on Elf Power’s ‘Artificial Countrysides’

On Artificial Countrysides, Elf Power ground cosmic apocalypse and global destruction into fever dreams from their own backyard.

Andrew Bird’s ‘Inside Problems’ Burrows into Pop History

Andrew Bird’s ‘Inside Problems’ Burrows into Pop History

Andrew Bird’s Inside Problems burrows into Beethoven, the Velvet Underground, ’60s pop, and his own back catalog.

41 Essential Pop/Rock Songs with Accordion

41 Essential Pop/Rock Songs with Accordion

No popular musical instrument has been more frequently maligned than the accordion. Despite gaining hipster cred in the 1990s, its role in pop remains underappreciated.

Richard and Linda Thompson’s ‘Shoot Out the Lights’ 40 Years Later

Richard and Linda Thompson’s ‘Shoot Out the Lights’ 40 Years Later

Forty years later, Richard and Linda Thompson’s Shoot Out the Lights retains its mystery and power no matter how much you read into it, or how often.

1980s Pop Music and the Atomic Pleasure Dome

1980s Pop Music and the Atomic Pleasure Dome

Saturated in apocalyptic fears of the atomic bomb, 1980s music was also danceable and transporting. How can something that was so horrible also be so much fun?