‘The Art of Darkness’ Unburies Goth Music’s Beginnings
John Robb’s The Art of Darkness unburies an estimable wealth of knowledge of goth music and can sit comfortably beside the works of Greil Marcus and Jon Savage.
John Robb’s The Art of Darkness unburies an estimable wealth of knowledge of goth music and can sit comfortably beside the works of Greil Marcus and Jon Savage.
Dreams in Double Time explores how bebop created new possibilities for marginalized people in the early 20th century. Bebop demands we listen again.
The familiar image of the American suburbs has not changed much since the 1950s. Benjamin Herold’s Disillusioned both updates and counters that image.
The female musicians interviewed in Katherine Yeske Taylor’s She’s a Badass have persisted against all odds and infused rock with a feminist verve.
‘Rolling Stone’ co-founder Ralph J. Gleason predates that golden era of music journalism when Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau thrived.
The narrative in Colin Barrett’s debut novel Wild Houses unfolds predictably, without much in the way of plot twists or surprises.
Sasha Frere-Jones’ anti-memoir memoir, Earlier, moves around in time without clear logic, keeping things alive and even suspenseful, though somewhat cryptically.
Rachel Maddow’s latest book on political history, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, weaves varying players past into a singular danger present.
In his history music history book High Bias, Marc Masters argues that cassette tapes will never die because they never really went away in the first place.
Evelyn McDonnell’s Joan Didion biography can’t get through the writer’s “locked door”, but it’s useful for conversations about the forms and ethics of criticism.
The “ABC” structure and diverse archival material in The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck make it among the most interesting texts released in 2023.
History of offense, protest, and censorship Outrageous is more of a clip show but also a riotous reminder that nothing in the cancel culture wars is new.