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Iain EllisAbout Iain Ellis Born in Manchester and raised east of London, Iain Ellis spent his formative years playing, performing, and consuming a heavy diet of punk rock music and football. In 1986, the young man went west to find his dreams in Bowling Green, Ohio. Instead, he picked up a PhD in American Culture Studies, writing his dissertation on 1980s American Punk Culture. In 2000, he traveled further west, settling in Lawrence, Kansas, where he currently teaches English and Youth Culture Studies at the University of Kansas. You may also enjoy his book, Rebels Wit Attitude: Subversive Rock Humorists. Features
Rebels Wit Attitude: NirvanaIn this excerpt from PopMatters' new book Rebels Wit Attitude, Iain Ellis discusses how Nirvana were a rocking perfect storm of punk’s attitude, metal’s riffs, and pop hooks. [11 January 2009] Rebels Wit Attitude: Beastie BoysIn this excerpt of PopMatters' new book Rebels Wit Attitude, Ellis discusses how Beastie Boys were not afraid to play the enemy within, often mocking the macho strutting of harder rappers. [14 December 2008] Rebels Wit Attitude: Talking HeadsIn this excerpt from PopMatters' new book Rebels Wit Attitude, Ellis looks at the Talking Heads' art school intellectualism, pop melodies, funk rhythms, and the abstract humor that made them outsiders. [7 December 2008] Columns
On the Sixth Day God Created Man…Chester: Part ThreeManchester's working class population showed the world that trade unions can resist authority. Such solidarity and class consciousness is heard in the arrogant sneers of the Stone Roses and Oasis. [2 October 2009] (more Alternative Rock Cultures) On the Sixth Day God Created Man…chester: Part 2Punk-influenced performance poetry now thrives on both sides of the Atlantic, as open mics and poetry slams draw new generations of writers with combative tones, satirical perspectives, and rock-inspired rhythms in their lines. [7 August 2009] (more Alternative Rock Cultures) On the Sixth Day God Created Man…chester: Part 1Boasting a plethora of bands whose creative imaginations have invariably left legacies of influence, pound-for-pound Manchester is the world’s greatest rock city. [12 June 2009] (more Alternative Rock Cultures) Art Brut(ally) FunnyHolden Caulfield -- with his sexual insecurities and confused immaturity -- provides the raw meat that Art Brut’s Eddie Argos cooks with. [3 April 2009] (more Subversive Rock Humor) Laughing Through the Tears: The Enduring Journey of Etta JamesAs much as Etta James used her songwriting and vocal skills as primary sources for empowerment and critique, her performances and image were equally significant in reflecting a public persona bursting with wit, wildness, and sassy radicalism. [12 February 2009] (more Subversive Rock Humor) Life After ABBA: Post-Ironic Swedish RockWelcome to the age of post-irony, where guilty pains and pleasures are played out as collective nostalgia through the warped blur of rose-tinted glasses. [5 December 2008] (more Subversive Rock Humor) Answers and Answers: The Roxanne and Annie SagasHank Ballard and the Midnighters' saucy provocations of the 1950s caused a stir that would resonate with responses throughout the formative years of rock 'n' roll. [6 October 2008] (more Subversive Rock Humor) Esquerita: The Other Originator of Rock ‘n’ Roll CampThis ultimate "odd man out" -- homosexual, black, bizarre-looking, crazy-behaving, and even crazier-playing rocker -- was pushed into the shadows beyond the bright lights of Little Richard. [1 August 2008] (more Subversive Rock Humor) Dead But Not Buried or, When the ‘90s Took a ‘60s TurnThe post-Dead and post-Zappa bands of the '90s sought to subvert the prevailing trends towards crass commercialism, individual greed, and phony superficiality. [23 May 2008] (more Subversive Rock Humor) Gene Vincent: A Caricature Portrait of the Artist as Rebel RockerNostalgic craving for the iconic Gene gene still burns bright, as look-alikes (young and old) exaggeratedly hiccup their way through “Be-Bop-a-Lula”. [28 March 2008] (more Subversive Rock Humor) The ‘Dewussification’ of TexasThe Texas Jewboys' fan base mutated into a hodge-podge collection of unconventional mavericks, spanning Hells Angels bikers, hardened hippies, and down-to-earth country folk. [25 January 2008] (more Subversive Rock Humor) George Formby: Tangled in the Roots of British Rock HumorFull of cheeky wordplay and double entendres, Formby continually tweaked the sensibilities of the staunchly conservative British establishment with saucy narratives that left little to the imagination. [30 November 2007] (more Subversive Rock Humor) The Affectionate Parodies and Ironic Diss-Positions of WeenShock-humor abounds across Ween’s work, and dumb infantilism is worn as a badge of honor. [1 October 2007] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Rap’s Righteous Rhyme-FighterIf Raymond 'Boots' Riley -- frontman for Oakland, California's the Coup -- is rap's most political practitioner, he may well also be one of its most expressive humorists. [11 May 2007] (more Subversive Rock Humor) The Rudest, Crudest, Lewdest, Drunkest Band in ChristendomExtreme was the nature of the Macc Lads' music, as was the nature of reactions to it. Within their deftly created insular world, traits of civility, sensitivity, and compromise were anathemas. Therein lay the foundation of their punk-inspired wit. [15 March 2007] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Hit Me With Your Rhythm Shtick: The Life and Rhymes of Ian DuryIan Dury's subversive humor gently ribbed the eccentrics within his own class-culture. His caricatures were vicarious self-parodies, pre-emptive strikes fending off a dominant middle-class inclined to more demeaning and patronizing portraits of its "inferiors". [11 January 2007] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) From the Mop-Top to the Walrus: Some Funny Sides of the BeatlesManifested in child-centered humor, the Beatles offered candy for the kids, tapped into the regressive escapist instincts of the arrested adolescents of the hippy subculture, and offered "seemingly" unthreatening fare for adults. [3 November 2006] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Bubblegum Pops the (Counter-)CultureFake and faceless, bubblegum pop in the late '60s and early '70s offended the prevailing rock myths of artistic creativity and rugged opposition to the powers-that-be. [25 August 2006] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Lonnie Donegan and the Birth of British RockAs skiffle's working-class trailblazer, Lonnie Donegan infused '50s British rock 'n' roll with a regional accent and music-hall comedy style missing from the popular American exports. [11 May 2006] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) The Redcoats Are Coming! The British Invasion of SXSW ‘06Ellis spends four days in Austin looking for the finest exports from Tony Blair's Cool Britannia. In lieu of monkeys, magic numbers, and Moz, his search yields Casio-pop, California harmonies, and communal sing-along epics. [27 March 2006] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Wild Wanda JacksonThe self-described 'Fujiyama Mama' of '50s rockabilly was a hard-headed, bare-knuckled antithesis to the era's prevailing gender expectations. [17 February 2006] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Chuck Berry: A-Merry-Can RebelHail! Hail! One of rock 'n' roll's most innovative mavericks whose dissenting rebellion was fueled by subversive humor. [13 January 2006] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Cab Calloway: Original RapperRhythmic emphases, rhyme infatuations, celebrations of decadence, slang, bling, and an overall manifestation of cool: Cab Calloway was hip-hop's preeminent godfather. [18 November 2005] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Laughin’ Louis Armstrong: The TricksterSatchmo's subversive humor struck multiple targets simultaneously: it commented on the very music he was transforming; and, as a survival tool, it presented a league of oppressors with unexpected resistance. [13 October 2005] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Messin’ With Texas: Some Sights and Sounds from SXSWAs the final day unfolded, things grew more hazy as the rush to consume all one could in the final hours was not limited to the music. [30 March 2005] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Mike Skinner’s Blues: Traversing The Streets of Anglo-AmericaNoticeably absent from Streets stories are the guns, bling, fast cars and ho's that so many American rappers invoke to establish their credentials. Where U.S. rappers emulate the fast-paced content of American action films, The Streets is more in tune with the Mike Leigh sensibility in his scenes of working class desperation and blank nothingness. [9 March 2005] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Growing Up With John Peel: A MemoirIn John Peel I know that I (and many others) found a voice that championed the cultural margins and artistic mavericks; this voice, in turn, fostered a receptive sensibility with which to open-mindedly and open-heartedly appreciate marginal artists. [29 December 2004] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Send in the Clowns: Subversive Rock HumoristsFrom Chuck Berry to Eminem, I hope these 10 disparate acts suggest that the need for subversive humor has never been greater, and that rock needs to react with its own insurgence: re-arming, re-loading, and then sending in the clowns. [10 November 2004] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) Influential Alternative Record Labels: Bloodshot Records and the New TraditionalismLike a latter-day Alan Ladd as Shane, Chicago-based independent label, Bloodshot Records, has taken upon itself the role of savior of the sagebrush, mixing it up in the robber-baron world of corporate Country. [13 October 2004] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) G.B.V—R.I.P: For the Love of RockOur newest music columnist pays tribute to dearly departed Guided By Voices and remembers their 20-year career as indie legends. [15 September 2004] (more Alternative Rock Cultures)(more Subversive Rock Humor) |
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