Friday, October 14 2011
Counterbalance No. 54: Captain Beefheart’s ‘Trout Mask Replica’
Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica is like a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag—it’s fast and bulbous and bound to end badly. Eric Klinger and Jason Mendelsohn try to clean up the ensuing mess in this week's Counterbalance.
Thursday, December 9 2010
Remembering Frank Zappa: 17 Years Later
Zappa was never commercially huge for the two most uncomplicated and inexorable reasons: he didn't particularly want (or, to his credit, need) to be, and more, he couldn't be.
Friday, May 23 2008
Dead But Not Buried or, When the ‘90s Took a ‘60s Turn
The post-Dead and post-Zappa bands of the '90s sought to subvert the prevailing trends towards crass commercialism, individual greed, and phony superficiality.
Tuesday, September 18 2007
All My Loving
Tony Palmer's 1968 made-for-BBC "masterpiece" looks decidedly more suspect today.

































