Monday, August 8 2011
‘Retromania’: You’d Throw It Against the Wall If You Weren’t So Immersed in It
Retromania is about the anxiety of influence; how our present moment is feeding into it, how it emerged framed as a historical inevitability, and how its necrotic collateral is any futurism that may have the audacity to disregard the past.
Monday, June 27 2011
Retromania Vs. Innovation: An Interview with Simon Reynolds
PopMatters talks with music critic Simon Reynolds about his new book Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past, as well as the modern state of pop futurism, the changing nature of music criticism, and the post-punk historian's favorite '80s alt-rock bands.
Wednesday, April 13 2011
‘Heaven 17 Live at Scala’ Gives Us Those Chilly-Cum-Funky Electronic Tunes
In the early '80s, it was possible for England's postpunk pioneers -- New Romantics, Rude Boys, and assorted other malcontents -- to imagine themselves the center of the media universe.
Thursday, April 3 2008
Live Fast, Die Young, or Get Off the Stage
Why wouldn't they burn out instead of fade away? Berman examines the sad spectacle of punk-rock reunions and shows how they destroy the two elements that actually made punk attractive: sex appeal and impermanence.
Friday, November 9 2007
P2
You could say the killer finds himself in his art. You could also say you've seen that art -- and this movie -- before.
Friday, October 21 2005
Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds
Focusing primarily on British and American music between 1978 and 1984, Reynolds emphasizes the idea that the glossed-over post-punk years were not marginal to the history of rock: they actually spawned a range of sounds that were more revolutionary than punk itself and that left a far more significant legacy, laying the foundations for the subsequent emergence of alternative music in all its myriad forms.
Friday, October 14 2005
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)
Prize Winner goes through odd motions to set Evelyn's taxing context and her admirable survival, its most extraordinary moment turns surreal.
